That Light That's Still Inside Of You
by CobaltBlue94
Summary: Sara lifted the hand that wasn't holding Felicity's to wipe her tears away. "For so long, I was all alone in the darkness. I feel like I spent lifetimes in this dark world, burning alive. Then I came home. I became a part of Team Arrow, I spent time with you, and lately I've noticed a new light shining in my dark world. You're that light, Felicity. So you can't die on me now."
1. Sacrifice

– Sacrifice –

* * *

Felicity isn't afraid of death. She really isn't. The way she sees it, death is easy and simple and final; it's life that is difficult and complex and prolonged. Call her a martyr, but if she had to pick a way to die, giving her life to protect the people she cares seems like the best way to go out.

So Felicity's not afraid to die.

What she is afraid of is leaving behind the same people she would die for in the first place. What would it do to Roy to lose one more person he cares about after losing so many others? How would Digg cope with her death when they both knew how important she was to him? Would it motivate Oliver to become a killer again to avenge her? Could Felicity's death be Sara's final breaking point? She hopes that they will remember her differently from the way they will find her. She wants to be remembered as their geeky, loveable IT girl, instead of whatever mess Slade is going to turn her into.

She shrieks as Slade presses the white hot iron to her bare stomach again. She can smell her own flesh burning, feel each and every individual nerve-ending on fire, but she hears her pained cry as if from a distance. If she were going to live, she knew the injury would leave a scar, but she doesn't plan on making it out of this warehouse alive.

"Now," Slade says, taking the iron away from her skin, "tell me what I want to know, and I'll end this. Your suffering is not necessary."

The blonde picks her head up and tries to focus her gaze on Slade's face, but without her glasses, her vision is warped slightly. She doesn't need to see him to tell him off though. "You're wasting your time," Felicity says emotionlessly. "I'm not telling you anything."

The force put behind the punch that strikes her face makes her sight blacken with little spots and stars for a moment, and she hears Slade growl in frustration. Felicity is too exhausted to even try to restrain her smug smile. Slade may be strong physically, but he has no idea what Felicity Smoak is truly capable of.

"They will come for you, you know," Slade taunts her dramatically. "Your heroic Oliver and amicable Sara will come to your rescue no doubt, and then we'll see what tune you're singing when it's _them_ I'm torturing."

With the meager amount of strength she has left, Felicity tries futilely to lunge at Slade, but he's got her hanging from the high ceiling by her chained wrists, and all it does is cause the shackles around her wrists to cut into her skin deeper. She can feel the wounds around her wrists begin to bleed again, but the pain doesn't seem to be getting to her the way it was in the beginning. She almost welcomes the pain now, because it assures her that she is still alive.

"I see why Oliver likes you," Slade comments, poking her in her burned and bruised ribs and making her jolt away in pain. "You've got spunk, loyalty, a true warrior's heart. The kid needs someone like that in his life. I wonder what he'll do, once you're gone . . ." the man trails off menacingly.

"It won't matter," Felicity lies. "I'm just the tech-girl. There's a million-and-one just like me out there in the world. Oliver will have another tech-savvy replacement in a heartbeat."

"You're an intelligent woman, Ms. Smoak, but you've got a terrible poker face," Wilson tells her.

"And you've got a terrible face in general," Felicity retorted. Maybe Roy was right, maybe her comebacks did need a little work, but she was pretty sure she was thinking with a concussion so she considered the insult to be a decent one given the circumstances.

The multiple blows she sustained to her face and stomach were proof enough that she had gotten to him. Again, she marveled at the way that pain seemed to be becoming less and less of an issue. Every time Wilson pulled his fist away to hit her again, she pictured the faces of the people she cared for; Roy with his endearing pout after he had failed to put his arrow into the target for the umpteenth time, Digg as he shared a knowing smirk with her after Oliver completely missed the point of their discussion yet again, Oliver as he looked at her with pride, Sara smiling at her like the sun. She ran the images through her mind on a loop, until everything went dark and quiet.

* * *

When Oliver pounded down the stairs of the new hideout that evening with Sara behind him, he was fully expecting Felicity to be already sitting in her chair in front of her computer screens. He had sent out a text for the whole team to meet up in their newly furnished headquarters an hour earlier, and Felicity was usually the first to receive and respond to these messages, since she was constantly dialed into the information grid. She had been working hard on her self-assigned project of bulking up the automated security of the 'Arrow Cave' for days now, and had only left the lair in brief stints since Slade had invaded their first sanctuary.

His eyes scanned the basement for her, but found no sign of life, other than the cup of coffee on her desk and the revolving screensavers on the computer monitors. "Felicity?!" he called, walking further into the space.

Sara walked over to Felicity's desk and sat in her chair. She touched the bottom of her coffee cup and flicked on the monitors. Her brow furrowed in worry. "Her coffee cup is still half-full and she left in the middle of writing a code," Sara assessed. She turned to Oliver, "This isn't Felicity. She doesn't leave half-finished codes up on her screen and she always shuts of the monitors before she leaves. And the coffee? If she had left the foundry, she would have taken it with her. Something's not right." Oliver was taking out his phone and making a call, so Sara asked, "What are you doing?"

"Calling Diggle. Maybe they made a Big Belly Burger run and she just forgot to shut it down," he explained, but even he didn't sound convinced of this.

Just as Oliver was putting the phone to his ear, Sara's own phone rang and she answered it with lightning reflexes. "Felicity?"

"No, it's me."

"Sin?" Sara asked quietly, looking over at Oliver who shook his head at her as he hung up with Digg.

"You know the old Mallett & Co. warehouse down by the western docks?" Sin asked. She didn't wait for Sara's answer before she continued, "You need to get down here. Your friend? Felicity? I found her."

"I need to know if I should call an ambulance, but you should definitely get down here before the police do," Sin explained through the phone, keeping her fingers on Felicity's pulse point, just to reassure herself that the girl was still alive. "You're gonna want to see this."

"Okay," Sara said, and Sin could practically hear her panic even seven miles away. "Okay. I-I'm on my way, okay? Just–" Sara broke off, like her words were too strained to come out or something. "Sin, just . . _don't leave her_, okay? Don't leave her alone. Understand?"

Sin nodded her head, feeling a lump rise to her throat at the sound of her usually unwavering idol suddenly choked up and panicking, then she realized that Sara could see her. "I won't. I won't, I promise," she answered solemnly. "Just hurry, okay? She's still got a pulse but . . . God, it's just so weak . . a-and slow . . ."

"Call an ambulance, okay? Don't wait," Sara told her. Sin heard the distinctive revving of a motorcycle and the honking of car horns. "My dad's on the SCPD. If I need to see the warehouse, I'll find a way through him. Just get her to a hospital."

"Okay. I will," Sin said.

"Hang in there, kiddo," Sara told her supportively.

"Yeah," Sin agreed before hanging up the phone and calling the emergency hotline.

* * *

Sara pulled up on her motor bike just in time to see paramedics lifting Felicity's motionless body onto a gurney. She tugged her helmet off and threw it behind her, not truly caring where it landed. Her legs carried her over to Felicity at a break-neck speed of their own volition.

"Glenn!" she yelled to one of the paramedics, recognizing him easily.

Their fathers had been friends since forever. Sara even vaguely remembered drunkenly hooking up with him once at a college party during her junior year of high school, before Laurel had shown up with Oliver and Tommy and broken up the fun. She would have to thank her sister for that the next time she saw her.

He turned around and spotted Sara pushing her way through the throngs of on-looking dockworkers and loiterers. Glenn and his partner, an older guy with the name _Boerner_ stitched onto his uniform jacket, were just rolling Felicity across the warehouse on the gurney. Sara spotted Sin not too far off, looking on in terror. The uniformed police officers tried to hold her back with the rest of the crowd, but a few unies who recognized her as Quentin Lance's daughter let her onto the premises after seeing her wild expression, bearing a striking resemblance to her father. Sara jogged closer.

"Sara Lance," Glenn greeted her with a tentative smile. He rubbed the back of his head, "Uh . . . now's not really a good time," he told her, just as Sin came running over.

"You're telling me," she shot back. "Your patient is a friend of mine. A _close_ friend of mine." Sara stared him down threateningly, silently letting him know that standing in her way right now would be suicide. "So tell me what's going on," she ordered.

The strapping and broad-shouldered man took a step back as if the shorter and smaller Sara had physically punched him in the face, but he responded, "Your friend's been through a lot. We need to get her to a hospital– _now –_ or she _will_ die."

"You'd better hurry then," Sara told the medics, gesturing for them to load Felicity and get moving. She turned to Sin, "Oliver Queen is going be here any minute to look at the scene." Sin looked at her oddly. "Don't ask now, I'll explain later. Okay?" As Sin nodded, Sara went to climb into the ambulance but Glenn tried to stop her.

"You can't–"

"Glenn, you can either let me ride along, or we can stand here arguing, and I swear to God, if she dies, you're next," Sara threatened.

"Let her in, Fortier!" the other paramedic, Boerner, told Glenn from the driver's seat.

"Okay! Yeah! Come on then!" Glenn told her impatiently as Sara climbed in.

Only once she was seated to the side, across from Glenn Fortier, did Sara begin to understand the extent of Felicity's condition and why Sin had called her. Sara was a woman of her word and she truly did know her wounds. Looking at Felicity now, Sara almost saw red. She recognized that the injuries inflicted upon Felicity had not been accidental, they were entirely intentional. Everything from the way Felicity's face was deathly pale underneath the multitude of bruises, scrapes, cuts, and dried blood, to the hand-shaped contusions around Felicity's throat, to the visible breaks of her collarbone, sternum and several of her ribs, to the blistering burns and long slices on her stomach, suggested that Felicity's wounds had been delivered with purpose and deliberateness. This wasn't an accident, this was torture.

And Sara knew who was responsible.

She took Felicity's hand in her own and leaned forward toward to girl.

"Felicity, it's me, okay? It's Sara. If you can hear me, try to squeeze my hand," Sara encouraged her. She held her breath for several seconds, with no response from the suffering woman. "It's okay. You should save your strength anyway. That's smart. You're always so smart. You're smart and you're cute and you're _strong_, Felicity. I don't even know how you survived this honestly, but I need you to keep being strong and fighting, alright? I need you to pull through and be okay because, if you're not okay then none of us will be."

Sara pushed hair away from Felicity's face as Glenn worked around her, taking Felicity's vitals and examining her injuries. Usually, Sara would be driving real medical experts crazy with her own observations and input, but right now she could barely even function properly. Her thoughts were a mess and her feelings were in complete turmoil. She hadn't felt this kind of panic since Nyssa had abducted her mother and she had drank Tibetan viper venom to kill herself in retaliation. She thought that maybe she hadn't felt panic like this since she had knelt beside Shado in the darkness of Lian Yu with Ivo telling Oliver to choose which of them would live; the frantic thoughts that had been racing through her mind that she would never see her parents again, and she would never get to make things right with Laurel, that she would die knowing that somewhere out there she had a sister who would never stop hating her because Sara would never get the chance to tell her how sorry she was and how much she loved Laurel.

"Felicity, I have to tell you something," Sara told her unconscious friend with urgency. "God, I hope you can hear me, because I need to tell you that . . ." – Sara felt a wetness on her cheeks and she lifted the hand that wasn't holding Felicity's to wipe her tears away – " . . . for _so_ long, I lived in this . . . inescapable dark world and I was all alone in the darkness. I feel like I spent lifetimes in this dark world, with my soul caught on fire, burning alive."

Sara brushed more hair behind Felicity's ear and continued to whisper, "And then I came home, for good, and I became a part of 'Team Arrow' and I spent time with you. The more time I spent with you, the closer we got, the more I let you in, and lately I've been noticing that there's a light shining in my dark, lonely world. You're that light, Felicity. You're the only light I have left in me and I need you, just like Oliver needs you and Digg needs you and Roy needs you. You're family needs you, sunshine.

"I survived for years in Lian Yu and Nanda Parbat among psychopaths and assassins, and I was mostly alone," Sara reminded her in a hushed voice. "If I can survive that, I _know_ that you can survive this, because you have a whole family of survivors who are here for you and pulling for you. So don't you dare die on me, Felicity Smoak, or I swear to God, I will bring you back to kill you myself, and you _know_ I will find a way."

As the ambulance finally pulled up in front of the hospital and Felicity was unloaded, Sara could have sworn she felt Felicity squeeze her hand, before the doctors and nurses shuffled Sara out of the way and took Felicity into the restricted area.

* * *

Sara had been waiting anxiously in the waiting room for an hour when Sin came in. Sara was sitting in one of the ugly and uncomfortable chairs, her knee bouncing compulsively, and she happened to look up just as Sin came through the doors with a wary expression on her face. The dark-haired teenager looked around and spotted Sara, and began making her way over.

"Hey, kiddo," Sara said, her voice betraying her weariness.

"Hi," Sin replied quickly. "I showed your pals to the warehouse, then I took off and came here." Her eyes kept shifting around the room, never lingering in one place for very long and her posture was rigid and tense, as if she were just waiting to run. "How's your friend?"

The lump that formed in Sara's throat had to be choked back before she could answer, "I don't know. Dr. Hamilton said they had to bring her into surgery to stabilize her before they could get x-rays, but it looked like a broken rib was pressing against her right lung and she had internal bleeding."

Sin's voice shook as she took a rattling breath and asked, "Is she going to make it?" The girl seemed to cast wary eyes around the room again.

Sara reached forward and grabbed Sin's hand in her own. "Hey," she called, regaining the younger woman's attention. Sara met Sin's young, scared, brown eyes and told her, "This isn't like your mom, okay? What's happening to Felicity? It's operable. The doctors stand a chance of fixing it. Now it's up to her."

After what felt like forever, Sin finally nodded and let out an unsteady breath. She sat down in the seat next to Sara, took the blonde's hand, and leaned her head against her pseudo-sister's shoulder. Sara smiled, drawing comfort from Sin's closeness just as much as she knew Sin drew comfort from her.

"Will you tell me why Oliver Queen and his bodyguard had to see where I found your friend now?" Sin asked after a long moment of silence between them.

Sara sighed, knowing she owed Sin the truth, but leery of telling the young girl a truth that wasn't hers to tell. She trusted Sin with her identity more than anybody else, she supposed that that same amount of trust could be put in her keeping Oliver's identity a secret as well. One thing was for certain, Oliver was not going to be thrilled about one more person knowing who the man under the hood was, but Sara figured that if Laurel, Thea, Roy, Felicity, and Digg already knew and her father preferred _not_ to know, then it wouldn't hurt to let one more person into their family. Sin already knew about Sara and Roy and she'd been nothing but trustworthy and supportive.

"My 'crime-fighting partner' – your words, not mine – the Arrow? Is Oliver Queen," Sara told her in a low voice, wary of the few possible listening ears in the otherwise unoccupied waiting room.

Sin looked at her with wide eyes. "Dude! That actually makes a lot of sense!" Sin whisper-yelled. "Wait, does Thea know that her brother is Robin Hood and her boyfriend is The White Hulk? 'Cause, I'm not gonna say anything obviously, but I'm telling you, the girl should know these things."

Sara smiled with amusement and pride in her eyes. She was happy for the friend that Sin had found in Thea and vice versa. They made a peculiar but genuine and strong pair.

"Yes, Thea knows now," Sara confirmed, still smiling. "She found out about Oliver just after Laurel uncovered the secret of Team Arrow – that's what Felicity and Roy call our band of masked crime-fighters – about the time she was planning on leaving Starling City. It's why she stayed. As for Roy, well, it was kind of obvious after his crusade through the city."

"Hold on! _Felicity_ knows about you too?" Sin demanded, looking unimpressed with Sara's lack of disclosure. "Is she a vigilante too?"

Sara laughed. "In her own right, she kind of is. She's our resident hacker, our eyes and ears, and our nearly endless fountain of intel."

"And what? Is Queen's bodyguard in on it too?" Sin joked. At Sara's telling look, Sin's jaw dropped open. "Oh. Okay. Wow. I have been so out of the loop."

"It's okay, so were Laurel and Thea," Sara told her. "We were all trying to keep you out of harm's way, but harm kind of ended up finding its way to you anyway."

Sin just nodded acceptingly enough and they fell back into silence until Sin asked, "Where's Roy now?"

"Oliver's secret hide out. Our lair, known to Felicity as 'The Arrow Cave'. It used to be in the basement of Verdant, but when Isobel Rochev – who is a villain, by the way – took over Queen Consolidated and Thea was forced to vacate, we had to relocate. Well, _they_ had to relocate. I was still out of town at that point," Sara rambled in explanation.

"Is he okay?" she asked.

"That crazy strong drug he was on? The one that made him comic book strong? It's called mirakuru and it's the same stuff that's affecting the guy who put Felicity in here. Some allies in Central City have been working to develop a cure and their first batch has been injected into Roy," Sara informed her. "Oliver's bodyguard, Diggle, he's been watching him while the antidote takes effect."

"So, if this Diggle guy is with Oliver at the warehouse now, who's looking out for Roy?" Sin inquired hesitantly.

Sara's eyebrows pulled together in pensiveness. She turned to face Sin. "I'm not sure," she answered. The blonde tried to smile reassuringly. "Maybe it's already taking effect and it's working," she suggested hopefully.

Sin nodded and sat back in her chair. She looked straight ahead, not appearing truly convinced, but willing to shelf that issue for the moment. Sara was grateful to her for it.

She was especially grateful when her phone rang and Oliver's image appeared on her phone. The stragglers in the waiting room looked at her in annoyance, and she sent them an apologetic glance as she stood and tapped Sin's knee on her way out of the room.

"Ollie," she answered.

"How is she?" Oliver asked immediately.

"I don't know. She had a broken rib pressing against her lung and internal bleeding when they took her in to stabilize her," Sara relayed to him. "Aside from that, I'm guessing a few more broken ribs, collarbone, and sternum, a severe concussion, and significant blood loss."

"Whatever blood she lost, we found it at the scene," Oliver answered as he looked around the shabby, blood-drenched warehouse. He had to hold back the bile in his throat as he looked at the reddened floors that stank of spilled blood and desperation. "God, if we didn't know better, I would think there had been a massacre here."

"She hardly looked like Felicity when they took her in, Ollie. I don't know how she even survived," Sara commented. "It's gotta be some sort of miracle."

"Your dad let Laurel, Digg, and I onto the crime scene while the techs were examining it. They found a drug, something that works like cyanide. They think it might be tetrodotoxin," he explained. "Apparently in small, extremely low-concentrated doses it–"

"–Mimics death," Sara finished. "It's derived from the poison of puffer fish, which is a delicacy of China and Japan. But, Oliver, it's extremely rare and even more dangerous. A single drop of it could easily kill you if it has a high enough concentration."

"But who do we know, aside from you, who would know that and think to use it to their advantage?" Oliver questioned her.

Sara thought for a moment. At first, she thought Oliver might be referring to members of The League of Assassins, but it had been months since she had been released from The League and she knew the LoA well enough to know when they had people in town. Although, Nyssa herself had been a surprise to Sara. Then she began thinking more in terms of her current circle of friends, and it clicked in her mind.

"Felicity," she said. "Could she have taken the toxin to fake her own death?" Sara thought on that for a beat. "I'm not sure whether to be shocked, proud, or furious with her about that."

"Neither am I," Oliver agreed, checking his surroundings around the docks. He looked to Digg and Laurel, who were speaking idly as they stood by the car waiting for him. "It was a huge risk, taking that poison. If she had taken even point-one milligram too much, she could have really died."

"If she did administer it to herself, she had to have known that," Sara expressed, feeling drained and confused. "I'm having a hard time understanding where she would have even gotten it in the first place. Even on the black market, the stuff isn't exactly easy to come by, and if she had it on her the whole time, why not use it sooner?"

"So maybe she didn't. Maybe someone else did," Oliver suggested. He took in a deep breath and let it out to calm his racing heart. "Laurel, Digg, and I are coming to you. We'll be there soon."

Just as Oliver was about to hang up, Sara suddenly remembered something and screamed, "Ollie!"

"Yeah?"

"If you and Digg are coming here, then who's staying with Roy?"

"Thea."

"Oh."

"Yeah. I'll see you soon."

Sara took the phone away from her face and looked at it. Maybe Oliver was finally realizing that his baby sister wasn't a baby anymore. Or maybe Laurel had just lawyered him into concession. Yeah, the latter seemed much more likely.

* * *

It felt like several eternities before anyone had anything to say about Felicity's condition and even then it took some coercion for Sara to get anything out of the doctors, since she wasn't technically family. It was lucky that Digg came in just at the right moment, with Oliver and Laurel in tow, because Sara was quickly running out of patience. Diggle, while also not family, had been listed as Felicity's emergency contact.

"Digg!" she called to him, beckoning him over.

He came over without pause, seeming to understand the issue at hand. Digg offered his hand out to Dr. Hamilton. "John Diggle," he introduced himself.

"Mr. Diggle, I'm Dr. Hamilton. You were listed as Miss Smoak's emergency contact," the doctor told him.

"That's right," Digg answered in a strong voice that left no trace of doubt in anybody's mind. "How is she?"

Dr. Hamilton seemed to puff himself up to match Digg's size, and if she hadn't been dying for news on Felicity's condition, Sara might have laughed. "You have a very remarkable friend, Mr. Diggle," Hamilton told him. "I've never seen anything like it. Just from the severe burns and blood loss alone, her body should have gone into catatonic shock. Three of her ribs were broken or displaced, one of them was pressed against her right lung for an extended period of time. Both her collarbone and her sternum were fractured, and there was significant internal bleeding. What's even stranger is that they found a rare toxin in her blood, not one that's commonly found in the U.S. She's going through dialysis to remove the rest of the poison from her bloodstream. To be perfectly honest, by all logic Miss Smoak should not have survived this ordeal."

"But she did," John asked with a steady gaze. "Is she stable?"

"For now, but she's still in critical condition," the doctor answered cautiously. "We were able to stem the internal bleeding and reset her ribs to allow her lungs the room that they need to breathe. After that we started a blood transfusion and treated her burns and the fractures to her collarbone and sternum. She's in the ICU now."

"When can we see her?" Sara asked.

"She's asleep now. Whatever happens to her in the next twenty-four hours is critical. She needs her rest. Someone should contact her family," Hamilton said to Diggle, disregarding Sara's question.

Sara felt small in way she hadn't felt for a long time. Digg looked over his shoulder at Oliver and Laurel, and then to Sara directly to his left. Then he turned back to Dr. Hamilton.

"We're her family," Digg told him solemnly. "We're all she has."

Hamilton rocked backwards on his heels and nodded his head. "I see," he replied. "Well, in that case, perhaps you should all go home and get some rest yourselves. There's nothing more you can do for her here right now." The doctor turned and began walking away but Sara, despite her best efforts at restraint, lunged after him and grabbed his arm.

"Wait, Dr. Hamilton!" she exclaimed. He fixed his stare on her and she released her hold on him. She could feel Oliver, Digg, Laurel, and Sin looking at her like she had grown a second head, but her attention was mainly fixated on the man who stood between her and her injured friend. "Please. I need to see her. I'll be brief, I swear. I just need to see for myself that she's okay." She met Hamilton's eyes steadily. "Please."

The doctor seemed reluctant to humor Sara in any way, but he must have seen the desperation in her face. He cleared his throat and told her stiffly, "I'll give you five minutes. It's the best I can do."

Sara was almost certain that it was _not_ the best that Hamilton could do, but she didn't argue. She would take what she could get without debate. Five minutes was all she really needed anyway.

She looked over her shoulder at her younger surrogate-sister. "Sin, I'll be back in five, okay?" she asked, receiving a single nod from the girl. Sara turned to Digg. "She knows," she told him simply, knowing he would understand. "She's trustworthy, believe me. Just stay with her, she's pretty shaken up and she doesn't like hospitals."

Digg nodded. "It's okay. I've got her."

"Thanks," Sara told him gratefully, before turning to follow Dr. Hamilton.

* * *

Felicity looked even smaller now than she always had before in Sara's eyes. Her breathing was still ragged and there wasn't much of her that wasn't covered up in gauze, stitches, or butterfly bandages. The same fear that had risen up in Sara upon first seeing Felicity outside the warehouse, now returned, gripping her heart like a vice.

"Five minutes," Hamilton reminded her, before slipping out the door.

Sara stepped further into the room, closer to Felicity, until she could finally reach forward and close her hand around Felicity's limp fingers. "Thank you," Sara told her. "Thank you for fighting." She brushed her fingertips over Felicity's hairline. "You're doing great, Felicity. Keep fighting." Sara cast a surreptitious glance over her shoulder, before leaning down and kissing Felicity's forehead. "Get some rest. I'll be back tomorrow, I promise," she whispered as she pulled away reluctantly.

When Sara got back down to the ground floor, she was expecting to find Oliver, Digg, Laurel, and Sin still waiting for her, but the waiting room was much less occupied than before. Instead, it was just Laurel waiting patiently for her, looking out the window at the harbor in the distance. Sara came up and stood beside her big sister silently. Laurel reached for her hand without moving her eyes from their fixed direction and Sara reveled in the feeling of not being in this alone anymore.

"How's Felicity?" Laurel asked after a peacefully quiet moment between them.

"Just like Hamilton said. She's still in critical condition, but she's stable," Sara relayed. She took in a deep breath through her nose and let it out slowly. "This never should have happened. We should have noticed she was missing sooner."

Laurel turned her head in her sister's direction. "You can't blame yourself for this, Sara," she said in her passionate, Laurel-like way. Sara looked away, because she couldn't stand to face her sister's comfort and pity right now.

Laurel squeezed her hand and kept talking to her, "When Felicity confirmed my suspicions that you and Oliver were the vigilantes, I wanted to be angry at you for lying to me and keeping secrets when the last six years of your life are already a huge secret. I felt patronized by you and by dad, like the two of you didn't think I could handle the truth. But then Felicity said something to me." Sara finally lifted her head to meet Laurel's eyes.

"She said, 'Sara knows you're strong, Laurel, but she's been through more than you or I could ever imagine and it's changed her. She's not your same kid sister who disappeared on your boyfriend's boat. Now she's a hero'." Laurel paused and took a moment to just look at Sara. "She was right. You _are_ a hero, Sara, but Felicity's a hero too. Even the greatest heroes can't save everyone from everything," she finished.

Sara felt tears burn in the back of her eyes and well in her tear ducts. "I'm glad you know," she admitted. "Even if it puts you in danger, I'm glad you know. Does that make me a horrible sister?" She choked on a sob as she tried to stifle it unsuccessfully.

Laurel turned to face her and took Sara's shoulders in either of her hands. "No," she answered, tears welling in her own eyes. "It doesn't make you a bad sister. It makes you the kind of sister that I'm proud to call mine."

"I'm scared," Sara confessed, as if it were her deepest and darkest fear. Silent tears slipped down her cheeks, just as they had two weeks ago when she had broken up with Oliver. This time, there was someone else there to catch them for her.

"Of what?" Laurel chuckled in a watery voice. "The extremely powerful and indestructible sociopathic maniac hell-bent on vengeance against you and Oliver, the chances of Roy waking up still in a fit of blind rage, the mysterious and deadly League of Assassins whose leader's daughter you apparently had a clandestine fling with before you barely escaped from them with your life, or the imminent and unbelievable war raging on in Starling City unbeknownst to most of its people?" Laurel smirked, "It's okay to be scared, Sara."

Sara nodded. "It's been so long since it's been okay for me to be afraid," she spoke quietly, looking out at the boats buoyed in the waters across the busy streets. "The night I came home and you told me to get out of your apartment, was the first time I had cried in years." Laurel eyes flashed with guilt and sadness, but Sara smiled reassuringly. "I was actually kind of relieved to know that I still could." Her smile faded quickly. "Now I'm terrified of what's coming, but I'm not relieved to know that I still can be terrified."

The Lance sisters turned and shared an unspoken moment of understanding.

* * *

It felt strange to not have to go through Verdant to get into their new headquarters. The new place was nice enough, if you liked low ceilings and dim lighting, but it still didn't quite feel like home in Sara's opinion. They had had so much room in the foundry, it was a miracle all their things fit into Oliver's second hideaway.

As she walked down the staircase into the new space with Laurel right behind her, Sara felt a sense of displacement. Thea was sitting at Felicity's computer screens with Sin beside her, and they were speaking to each other in hushed tones and casting glances at Roy's still-comatose form on the steel table. Digg and Oliver were standing on the training mats, but the two of them almost had to duck their heads in the room, so it made any actual training a challenge. They had almost twice as many people as before and not even half the space they used to.

Thea happened to look up at the sound of their footsteps, and she quickly got to her feet. "Hey. How's Felicity?" she asked with genuine concern. It seemed that Thea had developed a bit of a soft spot for the team's resident computer whiz now that she understood Felicity's importance in keeping her older brother safe and alive.

"She's okay," Laurel was quick to assure her, but Thea was looking at Sara.

"She's okay," Sara repeated solemnly. "She will be anyway." Sara cast a glance at their lifeless teammate on the table. "How's Roy?"

Thea frowned. "No change," she said with a tense sigh. "I wish I could contact whoever Felicity had working on the cure, but I can't find anything on her phone or computer to give me even an idea who that is. All I know is she orders Chinese and Big Belly Burger take-out _a lot_, she's made a lot of calls to S.T.A.R. Labs – probably about her boyfriend – and she keeps _seriously_ good tabs on all of you, which is actually good to know in case Ollie decides to disappear on me again."

"That's not going to happen again, Speedy," Oliver told her, coming over with Digg. "I told you that." He and his sister shared a look before Thea rolled her eyes and looked back to Felicity's screens. Oliver then turned to Sara and stepped closer, ushering Digg and Laurel along with them. Their gazes met with a seriousness. "How is she really?" he asked Sara.

Sara breathed in a deep breath to steady herself. "I told Thea. She's going to be okay . . . but she's not gonna bounce back overnight, Oliver," she warned him with a stern look. "Her wounds are going to heal. I'm more worried about what this is going to do to her on the inside. The psychological effects . . ." Sara look her head and then ran her fingers through her hair stressfully. "I'm worried," she told him finally, "that she isn't going to be the same Felicity that we said goodbye to after drinks two nights ago. You and I both know that something like this . . . can turn you into a completely different person."

Oliver's jaw clenched and he swallowed visibly. He had that glassy look in his eyes that he always had when he was trying to be all manly and not cry. "Felicity's the strongest out of all of us. We have to believe that she is stronger than anything Slade could ever do to her. _I_ need to believe that he can't break her," he said vehemently, "because if Slade can break Felicity, then what chance do any of the rest of us have?"

In her heart of hearts, Sara knew that Oliver was right. When it came to fighting the physical threats, the two of them were second to none, but when it came to the emotional and psychological demons, it was Felicity who endured and shined light into the darkest corners of their hearts and chased away the doubt and guilt and fear and evil that resided there. They protected the city as best they could, but it was Felicity who protected them from themselves.

It was the reason it felt strange to be all gathered together like this. Without Felicity, they weren't a team. They weren't a family. They were simply a bunch of vigilantes and accomplices standing around in a basement.

"Hey, she's made it this far having to shepherd the likes of us," Digg pointed out to Oliver. "I think the girl is owed a little credit."

Sara, Oliver, and Laurel all smiled, but they knew that what Diggle said was the truth.

"I want to take Slade down," Sara told them all. "Now more than ever. Messing with the three of us is one thing, shooting Roy up with mirakuru was pretty close, kidnapping Thea almost did it for me, but torturing Felicity to within an inch of her life? If Slade Wilson wants a war, then we'll bring him one. Let's see if he can come back from incineration, a cement casing, and seven miles of ocean water."

* * *

While Oliver and Digg scoured the city for leads on Slade's whereabouts and happenings, Laurel did all the digging she possibly could into Sebastian Blood's business and past, and Thea and Sin continued to try to find the source of the first mirakuru cure serum, Sara went back to the hospital in the morning. She didn't bother with the receptionist or any of the nurses or doctors, she knew where Felicity's room was and how to get there. She slipped past the medical personnel with all the stealth of a former assassin.

"Hi," Sara greeted Felicity when she arrived in the room.

Felicity was still asleep of course, and bore no indications of responding any time soon. Sara picked up Felicity's medical chart from the foot of the hospital bed and scanned over its contents.

She was familiar with most of the medical jargon and implications of the information. She had, after all, been in charge of keeping records just like it of the men Ivo experimented on when she spent time on the freighter. The memories made her shudder, even though what she had learned during that time had been helpful.

"Light reading?" asked a voice from behind her.

Years of being an assassin had trained Sara not to jump at unexpected occurrences, so she simply turned around calmly to look at Dr. Hamilton. "I've spent time in a medical research facility of sorts," Sara responded. It wasn't necessarily a complete lie. "I'm familiarized with medical terminology and procedures."

"Yet you seem to have a blatant disregard for hospital rules and regulations," he retorted disapprovingly.

Sara met his eyes and tried to convey some sort of actual apology to him. She _wasn't_ sorry for coming to see Felicity, she _needed_ to be here, but she was sorry for the ramifications it caused Dr. Hamilton. She knew he answered to a higher power, just as she had on that freighter.

"I don't want to cause trouble for you, doctor. I just need to be here with her," Sara told him.

"Why?" he asked.

The question caught Sara off-guard. Why? She hadn't really thought about _why_. Why _did_ she feel the need to be here with Felicity? If it were Laurel or Oliver or her father or Sin or Digg or anyone else, she knew she would feel compelled to be out on the streets banging heads together trying to find out where she could find the person who hurt someone she cared about. With Felicity, Sara felt like she never wanted to be even as far away as outside the hospital. _Why_ was that?

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "It's just a feeling. I _have_ to be with her. I don't know why."

Dr. Hamilton nodded thoughtfully. He eyes flickered to Felicity's face as he asked Sara, "What's your relationship to her?"

It was another question that caught Sara off-guard. Evidently doctors had become much more forthright than they had been six years ago. She wasn't sure that it was necessarily a good thing.

"We're . . . friends," Sara told him, but she sounded uncertain even to herself.

"Are you sure?" Dr. Hamilton questioned.

Sara thought about it. Their relationship was hard to pin down and label. They didn't fit neatly into a nice square box. They had been friendly the first time Sara came back to Starling City, but Felicity hadn't liked her very much when she had returned the second time around to stay. Felicity had been the only female on Team Arrow up until Sara came along, and Sara was not naive to the fact that Felicity had felt threatened by her in the beginning. But then, Felicity had taken a bullet for her and saved Sara's life, and Sara had stitched her up. After that, they had become friends, and Sara found herself admiring Felicity more and more the more she came to know her.

"People like Felicity aren't very common in the world. I can't imagine my world without her in it," Sara came to reply simply, deciding to further contemplate her deeper thoughts at a later time. "I know me being here isn't going to ensure that she stays in this world, but I just feel better being her with her than anywhere else."

Hamilton nodded pensively once more. "It sounds like you care a lot about her," he commented. He turned back toward the door calmly, and didn't look back as he added, "If anyone asks, I never saw you in here."

Though she knew Dr. Hamilton couldn't see it, she smiled gratefully at him. He closed the door behind him discreetly. Sara pulled the chair up close to Felicity's bedside and sat down.

She noticed Felicity looked a little better today than she had when Sara had seen her last night. There was more color in her face and cheeks, most likely from the transfusions and the dialysis filtering the rest of the tetrodotoxin from her bloodstream. The bruises looked a little worse, but Sara knew better than anyone that second-day bruises usually did. The cuts and scrapes looked less angry and red now. The breaks and fractures of her bones would take longer to heal; at least six weeks, or maybe more.

Sara took a deep breath and took Felicity's hand. "I know it seems really bad and painful, but it easily could have been so much worse, _bǎo bèi_. What you went through . . .you should have died, but you didn't. That's the real miracle here," she spoke, threading each of her individual fingers in between Felicity's with care. She looked from Felicity's sleeping face to the monitor that was keeping track of her heartbeat. Sara leaned forward, keeping Felicity's hand in both of hers and bring their hands to her forehead as she sighed. "You've got to be the strongest person I've ever met, Felicity Smoak."

It had been well over twenty-four hours since the last time Sara had slept, crashed out on her sister's couch after having drinks with the team on a Thursday night. None of them had known then that Saturday afternoon, Sin would find Felicity beaten and left for dead in a warehouse down by the docks. Sara was exhausted and she wanted to be back in that low-key bar, sitting between Felicity and Digg, exchanging glances with her newly-in-the-loop sister –who was drinking her sprite-and-grenadine as if being in an establishment built on alcohol wasn't bothering her at all – and occasionally playfully bumping shoulders and laughing with Felicity. That had been a good moment, the kind of moment that Sara wished could last forever, the kind of moment when she could feel little bits of who she used to be coming back to her and healing all the scars from the damage that killing people had done to her soul.

With her left hand still holding Felicity's right, Sara put her left arm down on bedside Felicity on the hospital bed and rested her head on the edge of the mattress. She fell asleep, hunched over in an uncomfortable hospital chair, taking comfort in the warmth and softness of Felicity's skin against her fingers. The gentle beeping of the heart monitor assured her that her friend was still fighting.


	2. Retrieval

Retrieval

* * *

Thea was almost asleep in her chair when she heard footsteps thundering down the stairs. They were too light to be Oliver, Laurel, or Diggle, and Sara almost never made a sound when she moved. In her exhausted and hopeless mind, Thea thought that maybe it didn't even matter if the visitor were friend or foe. Maybe nothing mattered anymore.

"Hey, girl," Sin's voice echoed once the footsteps stopped. "Come on. Get up!" Sin's hands were suddenly on Thea's elbows, lifting her from her seat insistently.

"Why?" Thea demanded in a whiny voice, dragging her feet in defiance.

Sin gave her one final, extra hard shove and Thea was on her feet. "_Because_, I think I might have found out who was working with Felicity on the mirakuru cure," Sin said excitedly, planting herself in the chair she had just evicted Thea from and rolling over to Felicity's gallery of monitors. She pulled up a log-in page for an e-mail site on the internet.

"I already tried getting into Felicity's e-mail account, Sin. She's got an airtight password and a ton of security," Thea reminded the younger girl. "And that's not even the site that hosts Felicity's e-mail account anyway."

"Yeah, because she's smart," Sin replied. "Really smart. Which is why I wasn't especially surprised when I found out that the e-mailing account we were trying to get into was a red herring. See, about a month ago, right after Hurricane Roy tore through the city, the purchase of an internet uniform resource locator was charged to a credit card listed under the name, Edward R. Rockwell."

Thea rolled her eyes and rubbed her forehead. "Sin," she began tiredly, "what does some random guy buying a uniform resource locator – and, by the way, I don't even know what that is – have to do with the mirakuru cure?"

Now Sin rolled her eyes at Thea. "It's important because four years ago, when she was a graduate student at MIT, Felicity was married to Edward Rockwell," Sin explained.

"Okay . . . wow. Uh, so . . . Felicity has a husband, or ex-husband or whatever. I have to admit, I never saw that one coming, but why does it matter that Felicity's ex bought something on the internet?" Thea asked.

"It matters because a year after he married Felicity, Edward Rockwell died in a car accident. He's been dead for three years," Sin told her. "So him buying an internet uniform resource locator, more commonly known as an internet URL, about a month ago? Not really possible. However, _Felicity_ using a credit card under her late-husband's name to buy a URL to a website called ? Not entirely out of the realm of possibility, especially when that website has an e-mail system with a single user ID– smoak.f ." Sin grinned proudly and input her own e-mail user ID and password to the website as she continued, "_And_, when you access that e-mail account, you can see several e-mails exchanged back and forth with two correspondents, _both_ with IP addresses that can be linked back to S.T.A.R. Labs, which I forwarded to my own e-mail address."

Thea put her hand on the back of Sin's chair and leaned over her shoulder to look at the screen. "And how exactly did you find all of this?" she asked cautiously.

Sin shrugged nonchalantly. "I know a guy," she answered, choosing not to elaborate on _how_ she knew this guy or who he was.

Thea smirked but didn't press her for any more information. Knowing Sin and her methods of information gathering, it was probably better that way. "Did this '_guy_' happen to figure out _who_ Felicity's S.T.A.R. Labs contacts were?" she asked in lieu of the more dangerous questions.

"He didn't have to," Sin said. "All the e-mails accounts for S.T.A.R. Labs employees contain their first and last names. In this case," – Sin clicked on two separate e-mails and panned out so that one e-mail was visible on the screen they'd been looking at and the other e-mail was visible on the screen next to it – "Caitlin Snow and Francisco Ramon."

Sin pushed herself away from the monitors so that Thea could take a closer look. After a few moments of quiet viewing, Thea turned to Sin and smiled. "Sin, you did it!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around Sin's neck and hugging her. "God, you have got to be the best friend I've ever had. Easily."

"Our boy doesn't have a lot of family," Sin said. "Just you and me, and God knows he's a complete numbskull when it comes to taking care of himself. Somebody has to do it, right?" It was meant to be said jokingly, but when Thea pulled out of their hug, Sin could see the flicker of despair in her friend's eyes. "He's not alone, and neither are you, Thea.

"Look," she began with a sigh, shoving her hands into her back pockets and making herself as small as possible the way that she did when she was feeling small on the inside, "I know what it's like to lose both your parents. It can make you feel like the whole world has suddenly turned on you. I didn't have anyone, no one until Sara found me. You got me and Roy, you've got your brother, you've got Laurel and Sara, and we got your back, T."

Thea beamed. "I've got your backs too. I hope you know that."

"I do," said Sin. "Now let's go save Roy."

* * *

_The streets were dark and lit only by a few waning streetlights and the waxing moon above. Leaves rustled against the wet pavement as a breeze blew the channels created by the red brick buildings of a quiet, sleepy little section of Park City. The rainstorm had chased the city's people inside when it had hit, and by the time it passed, most of them were safely asleep in their beds, ignorant to the rumbling purr of a motorcycle riding almost soundlessly around the neighborhood square before pulling to a stop in front of the blinking neon sign reading, _MOTEL_, in pink bubble letters._

_ The rider climbed gracefully off the bike and removed her helmet, blonde hair spilling out and falling across her shoulders and back as she did so. She shook water from her leather jacket, pants, and boots, before making her way into the homely little establishment, which, not unlike herself, had once been a sight to see but had become rundown and beaten over time. _

_ She tried not to think of her home and the people she wished she could surround herself with again. She wanted to wake up and have the last six years of her life be erased and the darkness that had settled inside of her removed. Without the title of assassin, vigilante, or castaway, Sara didn't know who she was._

_ This city had been her landing place for the last two weeks. She might have gone further, if she could have brought herself to put any more distance between her and the city that held everything that she cared about. Her friends and her family; her dad and Laurel, Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle, Thea and Sin. She wondered idly what they thought of her now._

_ Sara climbed the three flights of steps up to her room, barely making a sound as she walked. Sometimes her silence even made her uneasy, though she really should have been used to it by now. She slid her key into the lock and turned the handle. Her room was dark and quiet, but Sara knew immediately from the way that the hair on the back of her neck stood on end, that something wasn't right._

_ She wasn't alone._

_ Her hand reached back for the four-inch blade tucked into the her waistband. Her fingers curled tightly around the hilt, and she unsheathed it without making a sound. She waited with the patience of a predator, and made her way over to the floor lamp by the bed. As soon as the light flickered on, Sara saw a person sitting in the chair in the corner in her peripheral vision, and she lunged._

_ Two hands stopped her oncoming blade and she heard an all-too-familiar squeak of fear and exertion. Sara stopped trying to stab the unexpected visitor and stood back. She stared at her incredulously._

_ "Felicity?!" she demanded. "What the hell did you think you were doing?! I could have killed you! I was _going_ to kill you!"_

_ In a single fluid motion, Felicity had lifted herself from the chair and sidestepped Sara with wide, alert eyes that were still trained on the steel of Sara's knife. The bespectacled girl gulped visibly. "Yeah, um, I'm really glad that you didn't, because . . . wow, getting stabbed to death by a friend really isn't how I pictured myself dying," she said emphatically. "Not that I picture myself dying a lot. Well, I kind of do, what with all the near-misses and everything, and in our line of work, it's really not outside the realm of possi–"_

_ "Felicity," Sara broke in firmly, fixing the girl with a hardened stare. "_What_ are you doing here? How did you even find me?"_

_ At first, when Felicity's gaze fell to the floor, Sara was a little afraid that she had hurt or offended the other woman, but then Felicity said, "Your boots. I followed the tracking device in them."_

_ "I removed that chip _days_ ago," Sara told her skeptically._

_ "Well, yeah, sure, _one_ of them," Felicity reiterated. "The other one is still active." She met Sara's unimpressed look and she blushed, "I'm guessing you didn't know there was a chip in each of the heels?"_

_ "Because one wasn't enough?!" Sara demanded._

_ "Evidently not," Felicity scoffed. "I mean, you _did_ find the first one, so . . . I'm glad I planted a second one."_

_ Sara tilted her head back and groaned in exasperation. "Okay, let's try this again," Sara said, refocusing on Felicity's face. "_Why_ are you here, Felicity? If Oliver sent you, you can tell him–"_

_ "Wow," Felicity interrupted loudly, before launching into a one-woman dialogue. "_'Hey, Felicity! It's _great_ to see you!' _'It's great to see you too, Sara. I'm glad to see you're alive even though you tore out of town like the city was on fire!' _'Yeah, sorry about that. I needed some time to myself.' _'I completely understand, Sara. I'm sorry for having to bother you, and I'm just glad that you aren't acting at all hostile towards me after I drove seven hours to come find you because Slade Wilson murdered Moira Queen in front of both her children and Laurel now knows Oliver is the Arrow and you're the other vigilante, and she was right about Sebastian Blood being a murderous, raving psychopath.'_"

_ Suddenly Sara felt like Felicity had slapped her with 9000 volts of electricity. For a moment she just stared speechlessly at her friend, unable to comprehend what she was being told, much less formulate a response to it. It couldn't be true. Laurel couldn't know. Moira Queen couldn't be dead._

_ "You're lying to me to get me to come back to Starling City," Sara accused halfheartedly._

_ Felicity's steady ice-blue eyes met Sara's cool gray ones. "You know me, Sara. I'm a lot of things: a rambler, a computer geek, an accomplice to _two_ wanted vigilantes, and I've just recently added 'Bitch with Wi-fi' to that list of titles. But one thing I am not is a liar. I wouldn't lie to you just to get you to come back to Starling. In fact, as much as it hurts me to say this, if things weren't so dire right now, I would have let you take your time and come home on your own terms, but that option has been taken out of my hands." _

_ Felicity took a step forward and reached out her hands for each of Sara's, waiting for Sara's eyes to return her gaze before she continued. "I'm sorry, Sara. I really am. I know that what you need most right now is time and space to clear your head and heal your heart, and I hate to be the one to drag you back into the chaos and darkness, Sara, but if you stay away now, you won't have a home to come back to. Everyone you love . . . everyone who loves you . . . we'll all be dead."_

_ Sara felt her perfect hardened mask of indifference beginning to soften and shatter the longer she met Felicity's pleading, periwinkle eyes. She felt tears of frustration and fear and shame start to well in her own. She knew, in her very heart of hearts, that Felicity would never lie to Sara, even if she weren't a terrible liar._

_ "I can feel this darkness inside of me, Felicity. How am I supposed to stop a man whose soul is no worse than my own?" she asked, praying that Felicity – with all her endless knowledge – would have an answer for her._

_ Felicity seemed to give serious thought to the question, and Sara loved her all the more for taking it seriously. "Do you know what darkness is in scientific terms? It's the absence of light," Felicity said. "That's it. That's all it is. And you might think you've lost your light, Sara, but I'm telling you, it's still there. I've seen it in you. All you need is someone who can show you the way back to it. Let me be that person for you. Hell, I've got GPS and everything," she punned, causing Sara to laugh._

_ The hacker took another step closer to Sara and raised her hands to Sara's cheeks. As she focused on clearing away the moisture from Sara's face, Sara watched her intently. It wasn't as if Sara had been blind to it before, but up this close, Felicity was stunning. Of its own volition, Sara's hand raised to tuck hair behind one of Felicity's adorably dainty ears, and Felicity's gaze reconnected with hers once more._

_ "_Anti jamilah," _Sara whispered, so close that she could see Felicity's eyelashes fluttered when her breath washed over her face._

_ "What does that mean?" Felicity asked._

_ Sara opened her mouth to answer, but no sound came out. Felicity just continued looking at her, as if in a trance. _

_ "Sara . . . Sara . . ._ Sara–"

"–Sara," Laurel was saying, trying to rouse her little sister from her sleep.

"Hmm . . ." Sara groaned as she was pulled from her dream.

It was almost like a memory, of the night that Felicity found her in Park City and convinced her to come back to Starling. With one major difference. She _hadn't_ kissed Felicity. She hadn't even thought about it at the time.

"Hey, wake up," Laurel told her. Sara lifted her upper body from the edge of Felicity's hospital bed and looked up at her older sister. "Sin and Thea cracked the mystery of the mirakuru cure source. It was her contacts at S.T.A.R. Labs. The girls are on their way over there right now. Oliver and Diggle are gearing up for a fight. As soon as Roy is cured, they're going to face off with Slade Wilson's army."

Sara shook off her sleepiness and psyched herself up for the challenge that she knew awaited them. "Once they cure Roy, he won't have the strength or regeneration that he does under the effects of the mirakuru," Sara remarked darkly. "It'll be Oliver, Digg, Roy, and I against a whole army of super powered soldiers. I'm all for rooting for the underdog and everything, but I'm not too thrilled with those odds."

Laurel frowned, watching her younger sister push herself to her feet. Sara's body looked strangely deflated and the dark circles under her eyes made her exhaustion evident. Even as skilled as Sara obviously was, she was in no condition to fight super-soldiers right now.

"There's got to be others, people who can help you fight Wilson, right?" asked Laurel hopefully.

Suddenly, Sara had a really horrible bright idea. The others weren't going to like this, and she knew because even _she_ didn't like it. It was becoming more and more evident that they were running out of options.

* * *

"No. Absolutely not," Oliver said sternly, pacing the length of the training space in the new lair. He kept shooting glares at Sara and expectant looks to Diggle, as if asking for Digg to back him up, but the bodyguard remained silent.

"Oliver–"

"_SARA_, it's a bad idea," Oliver cut her off.

"You think I don't know that?!" Sara demanded, taking a few angry paces toward the green-clad man before Laurel grabbed her elbow to steady her. "I don't _want_ to do this, Ollie, but we're running out of options! We're outnumbered, we're overpowered, and Slade has been two steps ahead of us this entire time! He's toying with us and I've had enough! We either need to cure him or we need to take him out, and we need to do it _now_, before anyone else dies!"

"And you really think that _they_ are going to be happy to just cure Slade and leave him alive?!" Oliver demanded loudly. "They're killers, Sara!–"

"SO AM I!" Sara screamed, silencing everyone in the room. "So are you! Digg killed people as a soldier, Laurel killed Daley in self-defense, _my father_ has had to shoot to kill before on the police force!"

Sara felt anger surge through her as Oliver continued to look at her with a pigheaded expression on his face. "You assume that _everyone_ in The League is so evil because they're assassins, but they don't go around murdering innocent people left, right, and center, Oliver! They kill people like Slade, like Merlyn, who would do _terrible_ things if they were allowed to live. They kill the people who are willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of innocent lives to secure their own delusional vendettas! The League stops a lot of dangerous people and catastrophic events before they even happen. That's what they do. That's what _I_ did."

Oliver took two steps toward her. "You are not that person anymore–" he tried to assure her.

"–No, I'm not," she interrupted. "The person I am now, Oliver? The person _you_ are? We're not capable of doing what needs to be done. You couldn't kill Slade five years ago and, if it came down to it, you couldn't kill him now either, and we both know it. Ra's al Ghul can. Nyssa can. The assassins of The League, they can.

"We remember Slade the way he was before he became what he is now. He took care of you, he taught you how to fight, and he taught you how to survive. I led you to the mirakuru and you injected Slade with it," Sara reminded him. "_We_ did that. We created _this_ version of Slade Wilson, but we also remember who he was before Ivo killed Shado because you jumped in front of his gun to save _me_. He was our _friend_, and the both of us will _always_ feel some responsibility for turning him into the monster he is now. Ra's and Nyssa aren't tied to him the way that we are."

Oliver swallowed visibly, trying to push down the tears that sprang to his eyes at Sara's words. They could all see in his eyes that he knew she was right. He couldn't kill Slade because he felt it was his fault that the rage brought on by the mirakuru had destroyed his friend's humanity. Sara, likewise, would never be able to put an end to Slade's rampage for the very same reason. The League of Assassins really was a perfectly rational alternative, except for one thing.

"They'll want something in return," he told her quietly. "They just released you from your oath and allegiance. Tell me what you'll do if the price of their help is you returning to their ranks."

Sara breathed in a deep breath and ran her fingers through her hair. She turned away from Oliver, just so that she wouldn't have to look at him as she thought about it, but that ended up being the wrong move, as she was then face-to-face with Laurel instead. Her sister stared at her with big hazel eyes that were so much like their mother's; she was reminded of the night that Dinah Lance had pleaded with her not to join Oliver on the Queen's Gambit, that it would destroy her relationship with Laurel forever. Now Laurel was looking at her, with eyes pleading her not to leave her to rejoin The League of Assassins. She realized in that moment that if it had been Laurel begging her not to board the Queen's Gambit all those years ago, she wouldn't have got on the boat. Because, despite the love Sara had for her mother, Laurel had always been the one thing in her life that had mattered the most to her, and if she had been looking in her sister's eyes back then, as she was now, she would have realized her mistake before she'd even made it.

"I won't rejoin," Sara answered finally, turning to stare Oliver down again. "If it comes down to a choice between leaving my family or having to protect them myself, I'll choose them." She looked over her shoulder at Laurel. "Every single time."

"Then it's your call to make," Oliver conceded reluctantly. His picked up his bow and quiver and prepared to leave. "I just hope to hell that you know what you're doing."

Oliver left and as Digg passed Sara to follow him, he gave her a quick warning look and a slight nod. She took it as his very own version of a 'good luck'. Sara felt Laurel's hand on her shoulder and she reached her own hand up to hold it as she squeezed supportively.

"For what it's worth, I think you're really brave for doing this," Laurel told her quietly.

"Brave or stupid," Sara half-agreed, turning to face Laurel. "Either way, this is dangerous. I would tell you to leave town if it weren't for A.R.G.U.S. blocking all the exits to the city."

Laurel wrinkled her nose at Sara. "I wouldn't leave anyway," she admitted honestly.

Sara rolled her eyes. "Of course you wouldn't," she muttered, "because God forbid you actually take my advice and keep yourself out of harm's way for a change."

"Not my style," Laurel joked, pulling her little sister into a one-armed hug.

At that moment, Sara's phone began ringing. She pulled away from Laurel just enough to retrieve her phone from her pocket. She looked at the caller ID and then accepted the call.

"Dr. Hamilton," Sara greeted the man on the other end of the receiver. "How did you get this number?"

"It was given to me by our Miss Smoak, actually," the doctor answered. His smile was audible.

"You mean–"

"She's awake, Miss Lance," Dr. Hamilton informed her. "And she's asking for you."

"I'm on my way."

* * *

Sin was looking at Thea over Roy's sleeping form, or more specifically, Sin was looking at the vial of the improved mirakuru cure that Thea held between her thumb and forefinger. It was a strange neon blue color that Thea wouldn't ordinarily have trusted, but if its source was good enough for Felicity, then that was good enough for her. She ran her thumb across Roy's hairline absentmindedly and stared at his face, as if willing him to wake up on his own.

"At least they improved the cure for us without _too_ much of a fight," Thea murmured lowly.

Her friend scoffed. "Yeah. Probably because you looked like you were five seconds away from tearing their heads off if they didn't do what you asked," Sin commented sarcastically. "Dude, I didn't know princesses could be so scary."

Thea looked up from Roy's face for the first time since they had arrived back at that Arrow Cave. "Do you think this one is going to work?" she asked. Her tone was even but Sin could see the worry and raw fear in her steel-blue eyes. "It didn't work the first time, and now Caitlin and Cisco are out of mirakuru to procure an antidote from."

"We watched them fix it, Thea. They were sure they got it right this time, no doubts about it," Sin reminded her gently. "It'll work this time. I can feel it." Thea maintained her worried and skeptical expression, so Sin knew she would need to be the one to take action, "Come on. Give me the vial. I'll give him the injection."

Thea sighed and handed it over and Sin grabbed one of Sara's syringes from a nearby table. She pulled the entire vial into the syringe and turned back to the pair. Thea was standing at Roy's head, her fingers in his short hair, staring down at his face like she was looking at a dying man.

"He hates shots and needles," Thea commented in general.

"I know, but he'll be glad he got this one," Sin said. She met Thea's eyes, "Ready?"

"No," Thea sighed, "but do it anyway."

Sin nodded and pulled a face as she inserted the needle into Roy's bicep and pushed the cure lever on the syringe. She looked more relieved after she pulled the needle out and threw it onto the steel medical tray she had gotten it from. Sin blew out a breath she didn't know she had been holding.

"Okay, now all we have to do is wait and pray," Sin told Thea.

Thea nodded. "Ollie and John should be back soon," she said. "Just in case . . ." she trailed off, unable to force the rest of that sentence out.

Sin's hand lighted atop hers and she met her dark eyes. "Hey, they're just coming back so they can welcome Roy back to the land of the living. No 'just in case's about it."

The faint smile Sin got in return was lackluster and halfhearted at best, but it was all Thea could bring herself to do, as she watched the man she loved fight to live.

* * *

Sara was four steps ahead of Laurel and gaining distance in the hospital hallway, when suddenly she stopped. Laurel, having been nearly jogging to keep up with her sister, ground to a halt just short of bowling Sara over. The blonde's posture had become rigid and she seemed rooted to where she stood. Laurel took a step around her to see that her face looked suddenly deeply troubled.

"Sara?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

"I don't think I can go in there," Sara said.

Laurel's brow furrowed in confusion. "What? Why not?"

Blinking rapidly a few times, Sara met her sister's eyes dead-on. "What am I supposed to say to her?" she asked softly, her eyes shining with unexpected, unshed tears. "Slade's still at large, his army is still terrorizing the city, and now I've made up my mind to call the League of Assassins for help and Oliver's right– they're going to want me to return to Nanda Parbat with them."

The counselor's eyes grew worried. "But you said you wouldn't go back to them," Laurel reminded her with caution. She tried not to sound accusatory, but her internal silent alarms were blaring in her mind.

"I know, I know," Sara replied uneasily. When her blue eyes looked back up into her older sister's, Laurel saw the desperation and fear in them. "But people are dying, Laure. What if recommitting my allegiance to the League is the only way the city can be saved?" Realization flared in Sara's ice-blue irises, "That's it. That was Slade's plan all along."

"Okay, wait. Slow down," Laurel told her in a soothing voice. "You're not making any sense. Sara, _what_ was Slade's plan?"

Sara grabbed her sister's hands in her own ferociously. There was a newly crazed glint in her stare. "Slade kidnapped Thea, he killed Moira Queen, he told you that Ollie was the Arrow, he tortured Felicity to what he believed was her death because she's the only member of the team that Ollie actively tries to keep protected," Sara listed off, counting the points on her fingers. "He knows that we can't stop him alone and he knows about my ties to the League, he knows that they might be the only ones who can stop him and put an end to his army's rampage, and he knows that Ra's al Ghul will want something in return."

"Sara–"

"Ra's didn't release me, Laurel. Nyssa did," Sara told her. "No one leaves the League alive. The last person who did was Malcolm Merlyn and he went insane and killed five-hundred-and-three people, including his own son, trying to destroy the borough of the city that his wife was killed in."

"I'm well aware of that, Sara," Laurel snapped, not appreciating the reminder of Tommy's death. "What's your point?"

Sara sighed and her whole body deflated for the first time since she had frozen in the middle of the hospital corridor. "My point is that I can save myself the roaming charges, because I don't have to call the League," she said, meeting Laurel's eyes. "They're already here."

* * *

She had told Laurel to go on ahead of her and stay at the hospital with Felicity, as it might be one of the only safe places left in the city. The safer both her sister and Felicity were, the better for Sara. Two less people she cared about being in danger.

Once she had slipped out of the hospital, Sara ducked down an alleyway and made her way into a courtyard. She counted four different escape routes, not including all the windows of the vacant brick buildings surrounding three-quarters of the urban edifice; the fire escape to the rooftop, the back door to a restaurant with a lock that Sara could break off with the metal pipe laying nearby, the sewer grate just in front of her, and the way she had come in. She bent down and picked up what looked like part of a broken wood railing, snapping it into two pieces against her knee and twirling them both in her hands.

"I have to hand it to you, it took me awhile to figure out you were here this time," Sara announced into the dark shadows of the back alley. "I know you're there, blending into the shadows like darkness itself, following my every move, watching me. If you're going to kill me, at least give me the courtesy of a fair fight. Or are you afraid that you trained me a little _too_ well?"

Sara heard footsteps behind her and she dropped one of the wooden shivs beside her to withdraw a double-edged steel knife from her belt. She threw the blade toward the source of the noise with ferocity, and dropped to retrieve the shiv again all in one fluid motion. It only took a moment, the length of one breath, for a figure to step out of the shadows of the courtyard holding the shiv exactly as she had caught it in mid-air before her face. Sara sucked in a breath, unsure whether to be relieved or even more afraid.

"Nyssa," Sara said into the quiet darkness.

"_Merheba, Ta-er al-Sahfer,_" Nyssa greeted her, pulling off her balaclava. "Did you only just realize you were being watched?" asked the assassin conversationally.

"I've been a little preoccupied," Sara returned, keeping a close eye on Nyssa for any movements, however miniscule they might be.

"So I've seen," Nyssa said, bowing her head in acceptance. There was almost a tone of care and sympathy in her voice, and in another life Sara would have been quick to accept that as the truth, but in light of recent events, she wasn't certain. "You should still be mindful of your surroundings, _hubi_."

"Nyssa–"

"Do you know why I am here, _Ta-er al-Sahfer?_" Nyssa interrupted brusquely.

Sara shrugged her shoulders, something she knew annoyed Nyssa to no end. "To kill me or to coerce my fealty once again," the blonde guessed in a tone that falsely implied she didn't care which.

Nyssa looked at her with a deepening expression of uncharacteristic emotion and hurt. "You must know me better than that by now, _Ta-er al-Sahfer_," she said with disappointment. Nyssa looked up and her dark eyes, filled with so many secrets and ghosts, met the blazing pain of Sara's own tortured blue orbs. "My father has not sent me to kill you, nor has he sent me to force your return and allegiance to us."

"Then why have you come?" Sara asked distrustfully.

As Nyssa took two steps forward, Sara countered with a half-step back. She wanted to trust that Nyssa's intentions were true. She wanted to believe that this woman who had once held Sara's heart with such care could only be here for pure reasons. The trouble was that Sara knew Nyssa perhaps better than Nyssa knew herself at times, and she knew that Nyssa was anything but pure and true and trustworthy; she had seen Nyssa double-cross and cross-off too many marks to not be suspicious and guarded now.

"You needed me, _hayaati,_ and so I came," the dark-haired woman told her.

The look in Nyssa's eyes at that moment was the most sincere Sara could ever remember seeing her, and Sara found her walls gradually lowering despite her better judgment. She threw one of the wooden makeshift stakes aside, but kept the other one in her hand as a precaution. Nyssa nodded her acceptance of this small but adequate gesture, and when she walked toward Sara this time, Sara didn't step back. She held up her hand instead.

"If you truly are here to help, then I'm glad, but there are conditions," Sara told her warningly. "You are technically a fugitive of A.R.G.U.S. after all. First off, no killing innocents, no 'collateral damages', no loss is acceptable except for Slade and his men. Secondly, no kidnapping my family or friends. Third, no _poisoning_ them either–"

Nyssa bristled uncomfortably. "Does a non-lethal injection of tetrodotoxin count as poisoning your friends?" she asked.

Something inside of Sara snapped in that instant. Without her even registering her own movements, Sara had slammed Nyssa against one of the brick buildings. "_You_ poisoned Felicity?!" Sara gasped angrily.

"The dose wasn't intended to kill her! It was only meant to trick Wilson into believing her dead so he would leave her," Nyssa hissed back. "He never would have let her go alive!"

Sara released her hold on Nyssa and took a step back. The assassin was right, of course. Slade Wilson was not known for his mercifulness. In hindsight, Nyssa had probably actually _saved_ Felicity, rather than tried to killed her.

"She saved your life, _al-Sahfer_," Nyssa said to Sara meaningfully. "Who was I not to save hers in return?"

Releasing a breath she hadn't known she had been holding and running her fingers through her hair, Sara tilted her head back to the night sky. "I'm sorry," Sara apologized in a murmur. "I've been on edge lately."

Nyssa only nodded. "How is she? Your friend, Felicity."

"She's alive, by nothing short of a small miracle," Sara answered grimly. "The doctors say she should have died from all the trauma she sustained, but she's a survivor."

"Birds of a feather," Nyssa commented with a sly smirk, looking at Sara. "My father called you the same thing when you were first brought back to Nanda Parbat. He said your survival made him believe that perhaps there was a God out there somewhere."

Sara smiled faintly. "How is he?" she asked, torn between wanting to know and not wanting to know simultaneously.

Nyssa grimaced tightly. "He is well, thank you," she replied, keeping it short and vague. For that much, Sara was grateful. "But we were on the subject of your friend, if I recall." Nyssa turned Sara to walk out of the courtyard, the two falling into step beside one another. "Have you spoken to her yet?"

"No. She woke up today, and I was on my way to see her when I realized Slade's intentions to force me to ask you here for help, expecting your price of my servitude in return," Sara explained. "Laurel is with her now."

"And your boyfriend?" Nyssa teased skeptically.

"_Former_-boyfriend." The blonde amended. "We split up. I left for awhile, but I couldn't bring myself to go very far. Felicity found me and brought me home.

"Right now Oliver and John Diggle are probably contending with another member of our team who was injected with the mirakuru serum. Some contacts of Felicity's were able to procure an antidote for the mirakuru serum, and he was tested with it this afternoon. Hopefully it worked."

"Is he capable of fighting without the strength caused by the serum?" Nyssa inquired.

"Not like the rest of us," Sara answered, "but he can take a hit and keep throwing them back. He's raw, scrappy, and he was strong before he was injected with the mirakuru."

Nyssa nodded once more with a contemplative expression. "We should begin our plan of attack tomorrow morning. For now, you should see to your friends," she reasoned, all-business once again.

Sara took Nyssa's hand in her grasp. "The clock tower of Heritage Hall," she began. "At dawn, you'll meet me there?"

"_Na__ä__am_. I will be there," Nyssa promised. She touched Sara's hand that had grasped hers and leaned in slowly to place a kiss on Sara's cheek. Sara closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She heard Nyssa whisper, "Until then, _Ta-er al-Sahfer_."

When Sara reopened her eyes, she was standing alone on the street under the glow of the hospital lights, watching the chaos inflicted by Slade's men rage on around her still.


	3. Awakening

Awakening

* * *

** S**ara felt frightened at the thought of what she might find when she entered Felicity's hospital room. Each step she took down the hallway was slow and deliberate, as if at any moment she might turn around and flee. The thought of who she might meet when she looked into the face of her friend was unsettling. She had always known Felicity to be resilient, but even the most resilient people would suffer psychological scars after being put through what Felicity had. An experience like that could transform a person into someone else; Sara was walking proof of that.

A thousand scenarios ran through Sara's head, each more horrific and sobering than the last. Had Slade broken Felicity's spirit and mind as badly as he had broken her body? Would Felicity be bitter and resentful, angry and vengeful, or a catatonic shell of the person Sara knew? She wanted to believe that Slade could never have extinguished the light that burned so brightly inside of Felicity, the one that incited in her a dire craving to be close to Felicity that Sara felt in some deep, long untouched part of her soul.

In a small, subjugated compartment at the back of her mind, Sara knew what she was feeling. She had felt it before, but never to this extreme. She refused to acknowledge, even to herself, that this feeling existed inside of her. She had traded in her heart for the strength and will to survive a long time ago. There was nothing left in her to give to someone else, especially not someone as whole and pure as Felicity. Sara would do whatever it took to ensure that Felicity remained that way, if she still was.

The sound of laughter coming from the door of Felicity's room gave Sara some relief as she approached. When she turned and looked inside, she found Laurel sitting in the chair beside Felicity's bed, laughing at something their friend at said. For a moment, Sara elected to just lean in the doorway and take in the scene.

Felicity was looking better now, with more color in her cheeks and yellowing bruises on her face. She looked less like a corpse and more like the energetic woman they all knew and loved. Seeing her this way made the panicked clenching in her heart loosen some, allowing her to breathe a little more freely.

By chance, the woman in the hospital bed happened to glance toward the door and her eyes met Sara's gaze. The clenching tightened once again when Sara recognized the haunted look in Felicity's pale blue eyes. She knew that look; she had seen it in the eyes of the men Ivo experimented on and in the eyes of the assassins she had met in the League. It was a change so small that other people would not even notice it, but Sara was not 'other people'.

"Hi," Felicity croaked. Her voice was still hoarse and rough, and Sara's eyes shifted involuntarily to the contusions around Felicity's neck.

Sara tried to swallow past the lump in her throat. "Hey," she replied, shuffling further into the room. She wasn't sure where to stand or what to say or even how to posture herself, and she felt awkward for the first time in forever.

Laurel looked between the two of them for a moment, and then she set her hand over Felicity's and squeezed it in friendly affection. "I'm gonna go get something hot and caffeinated," she told Felicity while standing. "Anything you want me to smuggle in for you? Coffee? Chocolate? A taser?"

Felicity laughed a real, genuine laugh. "Only in this wacky, crime-fighting, fully _dys_functional family would that be a legitimate question," the blonde techie remarked. "No. Unless you can score me a secure wireless router and a tablet, or some really good morphine, I think I'm all set."

"Okay," Laurel laughed. "I'll see what I can do."

She stood and moved past her sister, but as she was passing, Sara told her, "Don't leave the hospital, okay? It's after dark and Slade's men are on the war path again."

Laurel mock-saluted Sara as she walked backwards down the corridor. "Whatever you say, little sister." The older Lance turned her back and strode down the hallway in her ever confident and purposeful gait.

Sara's eyes shifted from her sister's retreating form to the battered blonde woman sitting up in her hospital bed. She deliberated for a moment. She wasn't sure if she should move closer and maintain her distance.

"You can come sit down," Felicity told her after an awkward moment. She smiled a tired, faint smile as she added jokingly, "I won't bite, you know."

Relief flooded through Sara's body and she moved further into the room and took a seat in the chair that Laurel had just vacated. She reached her hand forward, as if to take Felicity's hand that way that Laurel had, but she hesitated. Felicity, however, stretched her own arm out and wrapped her fingers around Sara's and the remaining tension in Sara's body deflated slowly.

"It is really good to have you back, Fliss," Sara told her earnestly, meeting her eyes. "I was worried about you."

Felicity smiled and smoothed her thumb over the back of Sara's hand in a soothing motion. "Laurel told me that you already know Nyssa al Ghul is here," Felicity said conversationally, her eyes transfixed on the patterns her thumb was tracing on Sara's metacarpals. "Well, actually, she said 'The League of Assassins', but I knew it was probably Nyssa that you met with. The League would probably want to lead in with your alluring, dangerous, and sexy former-lover, I would think." Felicity's eyes widened. "Not that _I_ think she's sexy, and not that I _don't_ think she's sexy– I, um, I . . . What I meant was that _you_ probably think she's sexy and, you know, dangerous and alluring and all that. Um– Well, in any case, she gave me this shot of something and it made Slade think I was dead so I guess she kind of saved my life, and now I'm done talking."

Sara laughed out loud. It was the kind of laugh she hadn't used in years and it surprised her that she even remembered how to laugh like that. She was happy to know that she still could.

"Yup, you're _still_ cute," Sara told her. She leaned over to quickly kiss Felicity's temple. "You have no idea how relieved I am to know that."

Felicity scoffed. "Yeah," she mumbled sarcastically, "I bet I look _real_ 'cute' right now."

"Actually, you look like a badass," Sara told her honestly. "It's kind of hot." The last part was a slip-up, but Sara composed herself and produced a devilish grin before Felicity could catch onto that. At least it wasn't a lie.

Blue bug-eyes looked back at Sara. "Well, uh . . . thanks, I think," Felicity replied. "Do you think I'll have scars?"

A solemn feeling settled over the Canary. "Do you?" she countered, just the slightest hint of worry creeping into her tone.

The expression on Felicity's face changed from one of mirth to one of brooding. "Yes," she answered, trying to swallow past the lump in her throat. "But I think they'll heal, just like the rest of me."

They fell into silence for awhile, and they would have been lying if they had said it was a comfortable one. Finally, Felicity spoke again, "It was weird being under the effects of . . . whatever-it-was-your-crazy-assassin-ex-gave-me. It was like an out of body experience. I could hear everything that was going on around me, but I couldn't move or say anything back." Sara's hand tighten in Felicity's grip.  
"I heard you. When we were in the ambulance, I heard you. I tried to move like you asked me to, but I couldn't. I wanted to let you know that I was still with you. I'm still with you," Felicity promised, pulling their joined hands to her chest where Sara could feel her heart beating. "Everything was dark where I was – and part of me was glad because, you know, everyone always talks about seeing a light when they're about to die? – but then you started telling me to fight because all of you needed me. It gave me strength, Sara. You made me fight to come back so that I could tell you this:  
"When I went to Park City to convince you to come home, I promised you that I would help you find your way back to the light that's still inside you. Two days ago, I was dying and I was in so much pain that I _wanted _to die, but then you spoke to me and you gave me back my will to survive." Felicity looked up at her with glimmering eyes full of tears. "You saved me, Sara. Thank you."

Sara sat speechless for a moment, and then she felt all her restraint slip away from her. She launched herself out of her seat and she threw her arms around Felicity, still keeping mind of her injuries. She didn't care how out of character she was acting, it didn't even matter to her anymore. She cried. Sara cried and she held Felicity and Felicity held her back, and for a long time they stayed that way.

. . .

**S**ara was awoken a short time later by a hand on her back and she shook off her sleep and looked up to find her sister holding out a cup of coffee to her. She glanced quickly to Felicity, seeing her still sleeping in relative peace. She took the coffee from her sister's hands and took a sip.

"Thanks," she gasped after taking a sip of the scalding beverage. She met her sister's eyes and her expression softened. "Seriously though, Laur. Thank you . . . for everything."

Laurel bent over and hugged Sara to her side, dropping a kiss onto her little sister's head. "That's what I'm here for, Sare Bear," she told her, as Sara relaxed into her sister's comforting embrace. "We missed out on six years of each others' lives. I just want to be here for you for the rest of them."

Sara nodded her head where it was nestled against her sister's stomach, but she didn't say anything. She wanted to tell Laurel that she was the reason Sara had fought so hard to stay alive on the freighter and on the island and eventually in the League. She wanted to tell her sister that she didn't know how all of this was going to turn out, but she was sure that Laurel was the most important person in her live, aside from their father, and that she would always fight for her. She wanted to talk to Laurel about her conflicting feelings in light of Nyssa al Ghul's recent return to Starling City in its darkest hour, and about her startling revelation concerning their team and the adversaries and Felicity. There were a million things Sara wanted to say to Laurel, but she couldn't find a way to voice any of them, and she didn't know that they had the time for her to explain anyway.

"I really love you," she said in lieu of all the million thoughts pinging through her mind. "No matter what happens, Laurel, I want you to know that I love you and I'm sorry for getting on the Queen's Gambit six years ago. I would do anything to take it back."

She felt Laurel's fingers thread through her hair in response. "I forgave you for that a long time ago," Laurel said softly. "After awhile, it just didn't feel right holding onto that anger when I thought I'd lost you forever. I didn't want to remember you that way. I just wanted to remember you as my towheaded baby sister; jumping on the trampoline the backyard with me, wearing a towel tied around your neck like a cape, with a popsicle stain on your face, and grinning with your two front teeth both missing; scaling the tree outside my bedroom window to sneak back into the house _way_ after midnight and just collapsing in bed with me because you were too tired to take ten steps across the hall to get to yours, stealing my _favorite_ shirt and wearing it to Michael Kovski's party where it was _ruined_ because you pissed off Tori Blake and she threw her cup of spiked fruit punch on you; dancing into my room in your underwear singing the Backstreet Boys into a hairbrush to cheer me up when I was upset, and always covering for me with mom and dad when I went out with Tommy and Oliver to go somewhere dad wouldn't approve of."

Sara smiled at the memories as Laurel remembered them aloud. It felt like she was describing a different person, in a different life, and yet Sara felt the remnants of that wild and rebellious child still alive inside of her sometimes. Under all the scars and burns and darkness that covered her heart and soul, Sara was beginning to understand that she was still that same girl that her sister chose to remember her as.

She looked up to her older sister again. "Promise me one thing?" she requested. "Promise me that, no matter what happens from here on out, you'll remember me as that girl."

Laurel looked as if Sara's request shocked her. "You _are_ that girl, Sara," Laurel told her. "To me, you will always be that girl. That mask you wear . . . it doesn't make you a different person, it just makes you more of the person I've always known you to be; brave, strong, determined, compassionate . . . That's who you are, Sara. At heart, that's who you always will be."

And Laurel was right, of course.

She was still a daughter, a sister, and a friend underneath it all. She felt the strength that came from knowing that no one would ever be able to take that from her pounding through her veins. People could change her all they wanted, but they couldn't take from her the person she had once been; the person that she still was, underneath it all.

_That_ was the light that Felicity saw was still inside of her, and _that_ was how she was going to light these guys up.

The blonde stood to her feet, clearly startling her sister. "Laurel, I think I might have a plan, but I'm not sure you're going to like it."

"So what else is new," Laurel drawled flatly.

* * *

**I**f daybreak hadn't have come when it did, Oliver wasn't sure he would have survived.

Oliver was tired of fighting Slade's mirakuru soldiers with one hand tied behind his back. Even with the full support of the SCPD behind him, he knew he was fighting a losing battle. They need Roy. They needed Sara. They needed anyone else who could possibly put a dent in these guys and live to tell someone about it.

The irony of them needing a literal miracle to stop men induced with a drug named 'miracle' was not lost on Oliver, nor was it lost on Diggle, who was in just as bad shape as his boss.

"We're fighting super-powered soldiers," Oliver said aloud.

"Brilliant observation, Ollie," Thea snapped in his direction, looking up briefly from Roy's recovering body to send a deadly glare at her older brother. "Next you're going to tell me that the sky is blue."

Oliver had to stop himself from snapping back at her like they were children again. "What I _meant_," he continued through gritted teeth, "is that we need help, and, at this point, I don't even care where it comes from anymore."

They heard footsteps coming down the stairs and turned to see Digg walking down with Laurel. "Well that's good," Diggle told him, "because Lyla just called me. A.R.G.U.S. is going to level the city in forty-eight hours if we don't get a handle on this." He walked up to Oliver with a little less confidence than usual. "You and I can't get close enough to inject Slade or to kill him, but we know someone who can, and Lyla says he's willing to cooperate with us, if we take the chance on him."

The Arrow lifted his chin. "First Sara with her brilliant plan of calling the League of Assassins! Now _you_ want to unleash Deadshot?!" Oliver exclaimed. "Has everyone I know gone crazy?!"

"You said you didn't care where the help came from anymore, Oliver," Laurel reminded him. She stepped up to him and placed her hands on his shoulders. "You can't fight Slade Wilson alone, Ollie. Even with John and Sara and Felicity – who _clearly_ can't help us much right now – Wilson's men outnumber and overpower you." Her big, hazel eyes looked up into his and he saw a sort of stubborn bravery and determination masking the fear in them. "You have to accept the help where you can get it, otherwise Amanda Waller is going to bomb Starling City, if Wilson's men don't beat her to it. Lyla has the Suicide Squad on stand-by and the League of Assassins is already in Starling City. Take the help, Oliver. It's the only choice we have right now."

The sound of a sharp inhale, coupled with Thea's surprised shriek, drew everyone's attention over to Roy, who had bolted upright suddenly. Oliver rushed over with Digg just a step behind him, and gently moved his sister out of the way. He looked carefully at Roy, while fingering a fletchette behind his back as a precaution.

"Roy?" he asked reluctantly.

The younger man looked around wildly, his eyes searching every inch of the room. "What the hell happened?" he demanded in shock. "And where the hell am I?"

Oliver smiled at Diggle and threw the fletchette into the wall opposite them without looking away from his protégé. "Good to have you back, Harper," Oliver told him, clapping him on the shoulder. "You were pretty out of it there for awhile, but the mirakuru is out of your system now."

"How–?" Roy gaped.

Thea broke back into the circle the team had formed around Roy. "Felicity. She gave a pair of scientists from S.T.A.R. Labs the last vial of mirakuru and they derived a cure from it," she explained. "Of course, the first attempt was less than effective, so Sin and I had to track them down and coerce them to try again–"

"Actually," Sin broke in loudly from the other side of the room, "Princess here asked them how long they thought they could live after she took their heads off!" She jumped off her perch on Oliver's workbench and swaggered over to Roy. Sin drew her fist back and punched Roy as hard as she could.

Roy's eyes widened. "Ow, Sin!" he yelled at her, rubbing his arm where she had punched him. If it were possible, his eyes widened a little more. "That actually hurt," he realized out loud, looking around at the others.

"Yeah, just checking," Sin scoffed offhandedly.

The previously-superstrong boy whipped his head back around to Thea and Sin's direction. "Whoa, whoa! Wait a minute! Sin?! Thea?!" he demanded. His head snapped back to Oliver, "You told them?"

"Technically speaking, Sara told me and then I told Thea," Sin explained. "But hey! It's nice to see you too, Abercrombie! Don't worry! It wasn't like we've been worried out of our heads over you or anything!" she intoned sarcastically.

Roy groaned and put his head in his hands. He felt dizzy from all the new information that was being forced on him, but there had to be a reason that Oliver had allowed his younger sister to get pulled into all of this and he had a feeling that it wasn't him. Clearly, being brought up to speed right now was a necessity, not a choice made willingly.

He felt a soft hand land on his bare shoulder, followed by the sound of Thea's reassuring voice as she asked, "Roy?" He looked up to see that everyone had mostly dispersed but Thea was still sitting next to him, her clear blue eyes boring into his. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah," he sputtered. "I mean, I feel fine. It just feels like I missed a lot."

Thea's eyes teared over and she struggled to stifle a sob. "Yeah, you did," she told him, shuddering under the stress of trying to hold herself together. "But you're here now, and there's a lot going on _right now_ too. Slade Wilson made a bunch of mirakuru soldiers out of your blood and now he's been leading them through a tear across the city. There have been hundreds of deaths. It's like the Undertaking all over again."

With a single nod, Roy jumped off the metal slab he had been resting on for weeks now, and he began stretching out his limbs and working the kinks from his muscles. "Then we have to stop them," he declared loudly enough that everyone could hear.

"We have doses of the same serum that cured you. We need to get them into injection arrows, darts, anything that could deliver the cure to Slade's men without getting too close," Oliver instructed. He turned to Laurel, "If Digg and Lyla can get a secure internet router set up close to Felicity's hospital room, do you think she's well enough to hack into the camera footage around the city and be our eyes and ears?"

Laurel looked a little certain. "She can barely move most of her upper-body right now, but Sara thinks she might have an idea for how to remedy that," she explained. "Something about a serum that can accelerate the healing process. I'm not sure. She used a lot of medical terminology that I didn't even know she knew, but she sounded pretty sure of herself."

Oliver's expression grew steely and unreadable, like he was remembering something from a time in his life that he would rather forget. "She is. Ivo used it on the men he experimented on while Sara was on the freighter. It was a failed attempt to recreate the mirakuru serum, but it worked as a catalyst for hyper-regeneration," Oliver explained.

"Meaning?" Roy questioned as he gathered every empty injection arrow he could find and passed them to Thea and Sin.

"Meaning it temporarily gives the patient an even more accelerated healing process than the people injected with the mirakuru have," Oliver reiterated.

"Then why isn't it used more? A drug like that . . . mass produced, it could save countless lives," Digg said, walking around the makeshift table.

"Because the only people who knew how to replicate it were dead. Or, at least, believed to be dead," Oliver answered. "Ivo and Sara. She's now the only person in the world who knows how to recreate the hyper-healing serum, but there's another reason. Taking it? It's unbelievably painful to heal at that kind of rate, sometimes even more painful than the injuries themselves."

Laurel nodded. "Which is why she's going to sedate Felicity beforehand," she explained. "She doesn't know if there's any sedative strong enough to keep Felicity under while she's going through the healing process, but she's willing to try. And so is Felicity."

Oliver sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fine. Diggle, get Lyla and get a wireless connection to Felicity's ward? Laurel, when Sara's done, have her find her assassin pals and meet us back at the foundry. I don't know what's left of it, but it doesn't matter right now," he said. "Digg, after you're done, you can bring the Suicide Squad there as well. Roy, you're with me."

As everyone else began moving, Thea quickly followed after her brother and Roy. "I'm coming with you too, Ollie!"

"Absolutely not," Oliver said, spinning around on his feet. "Speedy, it's too dangerous. I don't want you in the middle of this."

"Well I am in the middle of this, whether you want me here or not!" Thea yelled.

"Thea, you don't even know how to defend yourself out there!" Oliver yelled back at her.

Seeing her brother's words as a challenge rather than a put down, Thea turned and picked up one of Oliver's spare lightweight dual compound bows and a steel-tipped arrow. In a single fluid motion, Thea had nocked the arrow, pulled the bowstring back, and fired at one of the targets. The arrow made a satisfying sound as it embedded itself into the heart of the bulls-eye.

She turned back to her brother and lifted an eyebrow as if to say 'see?'. "Four-year reigning archery champion of Camp Occowa," Thea said smugly. "Remember? I knew how to fire an arrow before you even learned how to hold a bow, Ollie. That" – she pointed to the dead-eye arrow – "is how well I can shoot after a nine-year hiatus. _Now_ tell me I can't defend myself out there." She glared at Oliver long and hard, knowing that she could beat him in a war of wills any day of the week.

"Fine," Oliver ground out eventually. "But you stay close to Roy and me. Got it? And bring that bow with you. You're going to need it." He looked around, "Sin?"

Sin held up her hands in acquiescence. "Hey, I'm good with staying put," she said. "The last time I tried out Sara's staff-thingy, I almost gave myself a concussion so, you know, you guys go have fun!"

"At least let me bring you to the hospital," Laurel suggested. "You can help Felicity and I. That way you're not alone down here."

Sin looked around the darkened and creepy basement lair, then back to Laurel. "Good idea! I'll follow you!" she agreed readily.

Laurel smiled a tiny, affectionate smile and held her arm out to the girl, wrapping it over Sin's shoulders once she was within reach.

* * *

**A**s scared as she was about the prospect of bringing Nyssa al Ghul and Oliver Queen in to work together, Sara was more afraid of any adverse affects the hyper-regeneration serum might have on Felicity. She hated her plan; it was risky and brutal, and she hated that she was going to be the one furthering Felicity's suffering. Unfortunately, it was also necessary.

"You should try to relax," Felicity told her. She couldn't see what Sara was doing with the array of ingredients Laurel and Sin had brought her and the ones she had nicked from the hospital itself, but Sara's body looked so tense that a single touch could shatter her like glass. "_I'm_ the one taking this stuff, and I'm going to be fine. No pain, no gain, right?"

Sara turned back around, but she didn't meet Felicity's eyes just yet, instead she looked at Laurel and Sin. "It's done, now I just need to boil and strain it. This would be so much easier if I were someplace with basic lab equipment," she sighed.

Sin looked thoughtful and then her face lit up. "S.T.A.R. Labs is, like, six blocks from here," she said. "I bet our friends, Drs. Snow and Ramon, would help us if we asked really nicely." She looked sideways at Laurel, "What do you say, Counselor? Wanna meet a couple geniuses?"

"Sure," Laurel agreed as Sara capped a lid on the tin container and handed it to Sin. She met her sister's eyes, "We'll be back soon. Do what you have to do."

Sara nodded and watched her sisters disappear from the room, then she turned back to Felicity and reclaimed the chair beside her friend's bed. Her hand fell over Felicity's finger and she clutched them tightly. "You're going to be okay," Sara told Felicity.

The IT girl quirked an eyebrow and a half-smile. "Are you trying to convince me? Or yourself?" she asked keenly. Her gaze softened and she lifted her arm with a wince to trace Sara's furrowed brow. "Hey. Sara, I trust you. Okay? I trust you. I really am going to be fine. You'll knock me out, you'll give me the super-healing serum, and I'll wake up right as rain by go-time."

"I'm not going to lie to you, Felicity. This serum is going to hurt like hell going through your system. It's going to feel like every cell in your body is moving too fast, multiplying too quickly, carrying too much. The adrenaline pumping through you might negate the sedative altogether," she warned. "You're going to be in an enormous amount of pain, and I really don't want to do that to you."

Felicity's hand covered the one that Sara had laid atop her other. She looked her in the eyes solemnly. "There is no one I trust more with this than you," she stated plainly. "I've been through twenty hours of torture at the hands of a delusional sadist. I'm stronger for it. I'm better than I was before. I can handle whatever this serum deals out to me, and whatever happens, it's not your fault, Sara. None of this is."

The tears that slipped down Sara's cheeks felt wrong and foreign to her still, after spending years maintaining an aloof composure, but she let them fall as she looked as Felicity. "You'll keep fighting, right? Promise me you'll keep fighting," Sara begged her.

A soft smile stretched across Felicity's features as her fingers slipped into Sara's blonde hair. "I will keep fighting. I will not stop," she promised. "Now, you promise me something."

Sara nodded. "Anything."

"Promise me you won't leave without saying goodbye, after the battle," Felicity told her. Sara opened her mouth with a denial stuck in her throat, but Felicity beat her to it. "You and I both know that Nyssa al Ghul didn't come to Starling City out of the goodness of her heart. I don't know what she wants, but there's something. So, if you can help it, Sara, don't leave without saying goodbye this time. At least to me."

Sara wasn't sure what to say to that.


	4. Resurgence

– Resurgence –

* * *

"**G**od, I _hate_ this!" Sara whisper-screamed to Laurel and Sin as Sin handed her the vial of the healing serum. "This is going to suck for her," she said, "and I should _be here_ with her while she's going through it."

Laurel put her arm around Sara's shoulders and pulled her close. "I know, but the others need you _out there_, Sara," she reminded her little sister gently. "I promise you, I will look after Felicity with my life, but Oliver _clearly_ doesn't play well with the League of Assassins _or_ the Suicide Squad. The city needs The Canary. That's who you have to be right now."

Sara could see the sincerity in Laurel's eyes, but it didn't make her feel any better. "Right. Because my early morning meeting with Nyssa went _so_ well," she pointed out sarcastically, remembering back to early this morning.

. . .

_Sara had left the hospital when the sky began getting lighter, but the sun had not quite begun to break out over the skyline. Before leaving, she had changed into her dark jeans, gray hoodie and leather jacket, and as she dismounted her motorcycle outside Heritage Hall and took her helmet off, she took a leaf from Oliver and Roy's books and kept her hood pulled up over her head. It wasn't yet daylight out and Slade's men might have still been finishing up their nightly razing of the city. She ducked into the building and silently made her way up to the clock tower._

_ She had found Nyssa waiting for her, the first rays of morning sun painting her face as she stood by the giant clock-face window. Even though Sara had made no sound as she moved, Nyssa had instinctually turned to look at her. The assassin had kept quiet until Sara was standing beside her, basking in the light._

_ "I was beginning to think you would not show, Ta-er al-Safher," Nyssa said lowly, a hint of amusement playing through her tones._

_ "It took me a little longer to get away from the hospital," Sara had explained unapologetically, staring straight ahead instead of looking at Nyssa._

_ "You've been spending a great deal of time there, I've seen," Nyssa commented. "Are you this concerned over _all_ of your associates here in Starling City?"_

_ Sara finally glared sideways at the raven-haired enigma. "Did you come here to talk to me about my relationships with my team members? Or about the imminent threat to the city? I get the feeling that _your_ associates would rather discuss why they've come all this way, since we're clearly not alone."_

_ At finding that there was no longer a need to remain in the shadows, several men in robes and balaclavas stepped forth. Their faces were shrouded by their hoods, so Sara could only see their eyes, but she thought she might recognize a few of them. She nodded to the few men she knew for certain._

_ Nyssa smirked mischievously. "Do you mean to tell me that you truly came alone yourself, Ta-er al-Safher?" Nyssa questioned skeptically._

_ "As a matter of fact, I did," Sara answered, unmoved by the League's show of numbers. She would have expected nothing less from a cell of trained assassins. Fortunately, she knew all their tricks. "You're not going to hurt me, Nyssa," she declared boldly, "and neither will your men."_

_ "And what makes you so sure?" Nyssa challenged._

_ Sara pulled a taunting smile. "You and I both know that, whether or not my allegiance lays with the League, I'm worth more to your father alive than I am dead. That's why he never sent you or al-Owal or anyone else to kill me, only to bring me back to Nanda Parbat. Sworn under him or not, I still owe him a debt, and I am still a woman of my word. He won't kill me until that debt is paid in_ _full. _

_ Nyssa pursed her lips. "No, he will not," she agreed. _

_"And besides that_" -_ Sara leaned in closer to Nyssa and lowered her voice so they wouldn't be heard by the others - "I once offered you the opportunity to kill me, the last time you came to this city, and you couldn't do it." She looked Nyssa in the eyes as she concluded, "You and I both know that I'm a lot harder to kill when I'm unwilling to die. You're no more likely to try to hurt me than I would be to hurt you, Nyssa."  
_

_The assassin bristled, as if shaking off the resentment she felt so that she could remain emotionless as always. "Do your friends have a plan?" Nyssa asked._

_ "We have some other old . . . _allies_ . . joining us in battle. Tonight. We'll meet at the old foundry to go over our plan of attack," Sara told her. "I trust you know where that is."_

_ Nyssa inclined her head ever so slightly. "I do."_

_ "Good. At sunset then," Sara told her, turning to leave. She got almost to the staircase before Nyssa spoke to her._

_ "Is she really what you want, Ta-er al-Safher?" called Nyssa. _

_ Sara stopped abruptly and her body tensed for a fight. Nyssa followed her, stepping behind her and running a hand across her shoulders as she stepped face-to-face with Sara. In her eyes, all Sara could see was a sort of amused skepticism._

_ "Someone so ordinary?" Nyssa continued to question her. "So helpless? Always falling into harm's way with no means to defend herself or escape, just like all the other people of this city that you play hero to? I know who you are, Ta-er al-Safher. You will never be able to leave this life, and she will never be safe living in it. As long as you care for her, you will never know peace."_

_ "You're wrong," Sara told her. "She's not ordinary, she's remarkable, and she's not helpless, she's selfless. She knows nothing about battle but she fights anyway, because she believes in what she's fighting for. And I do know peace. I know it every time she looks at me."_

. . .

"Hey," Laurel said to her, grabbing Sara's shoulders to regain her gaze and her undivided attention, "you just go out there and do your vigilante-thing, and Sin and I will get Felicity back to doing her IT 'Big Sister-is-watching'-thing, and pretty soon this will all be over. Okay? Dad and the rest of the SCPD are already corralling Slade's men. He says it will be like shooting fish in a barrel for you guys."

Sara smiled weakly. "Sure," she murmured, "like shooting well-trained, super-powered killer fish in a powder keg barrel." She peered back into the room where Sin was sitting next to Felicity, and she felt a pang in her heart. "How hard could it be?"

* * *

**F**elicity looked on worriedly as Sara as she prepared the syringes of the hyper-healing drug and the sedative. "You look like you're going to puke," she commented. "You should probably take a breath before you pass out, you know."

Reflexively, Sara seemed to inhale upon Felicity's command. "I'd just feel a lot better if we weren't doing this in a hospital full of _real_ doctors, especially your attending, who is suspicious of me enough as it is," she prattled on, until Felicity touched her wrist lightly, silencing her panicked monologue.

Their eyes met intensely again as Felicity told her, "I trust you, remember? And Laurel and Sin are standing guard right outside the door, _and_ Dr. Hamilton just made his rounds ten minutes ago. Stop thinking about it. Just do it. Everything is going to be okay."

For the first time since meeting one another, Felicity realized that Sara looked well and truly horrified. She had seen Sara scared over her family's safety countless times, frightened of her own residual killer's instincts, worried for Oliver and for Felicity herself, but this time it was different. It was like Felicity was looking at a different person, like a younger and more innocent version of Sara Lance.

She met the scared look in Sara's blue-green gaze with reassurance in her own. "Everything is going to be okay," Felicity repeated, rubbing her thumb over Sara's shaking elbow. "I'm going to be okay, and so are you. Everything is going to be okay, Sara."

"What if it isn't?" Sara questioned. Her voice wavered for the first time that Felicity could ever remember as she gave voice to the thought that had been plaguing her darkest throughts for days now.

After biting her bottom lip in thought for a moment, an idea flashed across Felicity's mind and she held out her palm. "Give me your hand," she told Sara. The other blonde obliged without question or hesitation, proving that she trusted Felicity implicitly.

Felicity lifted Sara's hand to her chest and placed it directly over her heart, which began rapidly beating at Sara's touch. "Feel that?" She paused and held Sara's soft stare for another moment. "You will still be able to feel it when you get back from saving the world, okay? You'll hear my voice in your ear while you're out there battling mirakuru monsters in two hours or less." She saw the determined spark beginning to flame back into life in Sara's eyes and she smiled slowly. "I'm with you, Sara. I'll be with you the whole time. I won't let you be alone out there. I have your back." Felicity quirked another smile. "After all, I don't take bullets for just anyone."

Sara laughed but stared at Felicity in awe. "How do you do that?" she inquired breathlessly.

"Do what?" Felicity questioned.

"How do you always know what to say to get through to us?" Sara clarified. "To me, to Oliver, to Digg, to Roy, even to my father. You always know how to reach us when we go to our darkest places."

Felicity shrugged, and grimaced a little at the pain it caused her. "It's my superpower," she answered simply. "The hacking is really just a cover for my _true_ talent," she added in jest.  
"Everyone needs a little saving now and then, even former-assassins-turned-masked-kickass-vigilante types."

Despite the pain it caused her, Felicity lifted her arm and cupped Sara's face in one hand. "Come here," she told Sara, guiding the girl down to her.

Sara lowered herself, and when she did, she felt Felicity's arms slip around her neck. Sara's arms wound themselves carefully around Felicity's torso, still mindful of the injuries that she was hoping against hope would no longer be existent an hour from now. Even with an embrace so loose, Sara still felt comforted by the gesture and the sensation of Felicity's arms wrapped around her. It made her feel safer, stronger, and braver, as if Felicity was passing along a little of her own unique brand of heroism into Sara through their contact. When Felicity's grip loosened, Sara held on for a moment longer, before stepping away once more and returning her eyes to Felicity's gaze.

"Now, here's what you're going to do," Felicity instructed. "You're going to knock me out with that sedative, you're going to hit me with your super-healing-serum, and then you're going to go make sure Nyssa al Ghul and Oliver, and Floyd Lawton and Digg don't all kill each other before they take down Slade."

Sara nodded more determinedly now. "Okay, but if I don't hear your voice on the comms in ninety minutes, I'm aborting the mission and running straight back here, got it?"

Felicity smiled, nodded, and laid back against the pillows assuredly. "I would expect nothing less from my white-wigged savior," she quipped.

Sara took a deep breath and injected Felicity with the sedative, followed a few minutes later by the hyper-healer. Then she stood, bent to kiss an unconscious Felicity's forehead, and left the room. On her way out the door, she nodded to her sister and then proceeded down the hallway with squared shoulders and a gait that meant she was ready for a fight.

* * *

**A**s Roy loaded injection arrows into his own quiver, Oliver watched him carefully and, he noticed, so did Thea. For all the time he had spent in a state of mirakuru-powered rage or viper venom-induced coma, Roy now seemed to be mostly back to himself. His eyes were dark and he looked like he could use some natural sleep and maybe a Big Belly Burger (or five), but otherwise he was just fine. He almost made it look easy, but Oliver didn't have much hope of it being that way for the others, especially Slade.

"How are you feeling?" Oliver asked him cautiously.

Roy grinned impishly. "Only a little bit better than when you asked me the same thing half an hour ago," he answered smartly. "Honestly, I just want a little payback and for all of this to be over. I think I'm ready to get back to slapping bowls of water and stopping simple armed robbers, street thugs, and potential rapists."

Oliver couldn't help but smile. "You and me both," he agreed. "Although I think we've moved past slapping water. Maybe we'll work on actual hand-to-hand sparring now that I know you won't actually break me in half if you get mad."

"Oh please," Thea scoffed, coming up to the two of them with another armful of gathered arrows. She looked between her brother and the boy she loved and said, "You two just want an excuse to beat the crap out of each other and call it 'training'."

The men looked at each other and shrugged concessively.  
"Yeah, a little."  
"Maybe."

Thea rolled her eyes and muttered, "Boys." She continued to look around the foundry and then glared at her brother. "I still can't believe you were hiding a vigilante lair under my club without me knowing!" she snapped indignantly. "I mean, _how_ did I miss all of this? You would think I would notice a green-hooded figure running up and down my basement stairs multiple times every night."

"Actually we used the old service tunnels under the building," Roy told her. "There's actually several secret passageways into and out of the foundry. Felicity says it used to be some kind of speak-easy back in the twenties or something like that."

"And technically it was still _my_ club," Oliver reminded her offhandedly. "And, getting back on-point, you're going to need to learn how to fight too, Speedy," Oliver told her. "That is, if you want to keep being a part of things. You need to know how to defend yourself when you _don't_ have a bow in your hands."

"Mom had me take karate for, like, five years," Thea said, her eyes flickered with grief for a moment, before she shoved down her emotions again. "I know how to defend myself."

"And Roy knows street fighting tactics," Oliver countered. "It doesn't mean either of you are trained and disciplined enough to take on hardened criminals."

"Did somebody mention criminals?" said an unfortunately familiar voice from the foundry's entrance.

Oliver looked up and saw Digg and Lyla leading down a trio of men and a woman, all of whom he remembered sending away to Iron Heights at one point or another. The one who had spoken was the most familiar to all of them, Floyd Lawton a.k.a "Deadshot". Following him were Benjamin Turner a.k.a. "Bronze Tiger", Chien Na Wei, a.k.a "White China", and Dudley Soames a.k.a. "Torque".

As the mercenaries came down the steps, both Oliver and Roy took subconscious steps in front of Thea. Under normal circumstances, Thea may have been annoyed and indignant about their patronizing protectiveness, but since she had seen most of these faces make Starling City News headlines as wanted dangerous criminals, she was willing to swallow her pride for the time being. She didn't like how this so-called 'Suicide Squad' was shaping up.

"Turner, Soames," Oliver greeted two of the men, who both nodded to him menacingly. He turned to the white-haired woman. "Chien Na Wei. I didn't know you'd joined up," he commented conversationally.

She sneered at him. "Call it being drafted," she returned in a deadly purr. The drug thief cut her eyes in Lyla's direction as she explained, "I wasn't given much of a choice, if I ever want to see life outside the walls of a federal penitentiary again. Although, if I get the opportunity to take your head off, Hood, I think I'll take my chances with a triple-life sentence."

Seeming nonplussed by the woman's blatant threat, Oliver refocused his attention on the obvious unofficial frontman of this deadly three-ring circus that Amanda Waller evidently called a task force. Floyd Lawton pretended to tip his imaginary hat to Oliver. The gesture was obviously mocking, but the man still seemed to hold less resentment and ill-wishing for Oliver than his grudging colleagues. Lawton was many things, but he was not dishonest or underhanded; he owned and admitted to his dark deeds, however unremorseful he might be about them.

"Lawton," Oliver said in lieu of an actual greeting. "Thanks for agreeing to this. We could use all the help we can get."

Lawton chuckled darkly. "Well, it sure beats the hell out of being Waller's own personal flying monkeys, that's for damn sure," he drawled carelessly. "Even if we don't make it out of this god forsaken mess you've gotten yourselves into, at least we won't be at her beck and call. Sometimes I think she's just as crazy as that Harley Quinn muttering about her imaginary patients down the hall."

Oliver shot Lyla and Digg a questioning look, and Lyla held up a hand to stop his question before he even asked it. "It's a long story," she offered instead.

"Of course it is," Oliver conceded all too willingly. "You guys didn't happen to see Sara's League friends out there did you?"

"I clocked a couple of figures on the rooftops of the surrounding buildings," Lyla said, "but no sign of Sara yet." She set about unshackling Lawton and Turner's hands from their reinforced cuffs, and the men rubbed their wrists as they were freed.

White China scoffed. "You forgot about the ones hiding just inside the alleyways and under the cars parked on the streets," she added as her own handcuffs were undone. She didn't reach for her wrists to alleviate the stiffness in them, instead choosing to let them hang limply at her sides. Her penetrating gaze shifted to Oliver's face. "League of Assassins, if I'm not mistaken? What would be their interest in helping you? Ra's al Ghul does not involve himself or his organization in the affairs of common men."

"Does Slade Wilson seem like a common man to you?" Roy demanded of her, his chin lifting a fraction in a show of bravery and obstinacy. "Because he sure as hell doesn't seem 'common' to me."

Disregarding Roy pointedly, White China continued, "I hope you have a plan, Oliver Queen. These men will not go down easily, if at all. What makes you so sure that you can stop them in the first place after all your failures to stop them before?"

Oliver lifted one of the injection arrows. "This," he said, holding it up for the fugitives to see. "It's a cure to the super serum that turned these men into monsters."

"Well, how do you know it works?" Torque inquired, more out of curiosity than defiance.

Roy stood proudly with Oliver. "Because it worked on me," he answered with a sense of finality. "I was injected with the mirakuru serum. Slade's lackeys captured me in Blüdhaven and connected me to a centrifuge. They used my blood to create this army that's tearing apart the city. If the cure worked on me, it will work on them too."

"We're aiming to cure, not kill," Oliver instructed the squad. "No casualties unless absolutely necessary. Dropping bodies isn't our objective, turning these monsters back into men is. Anyone who has objections to that . . . there's the door, but just know that you won't last long with bombs in your spines and men who can tear you limb from limb hunting you down out there."

No one moved for the door, but Deadshot leaned against the stainless steel table and said, "Yeah, I'm not a bow and arrows kind of guy myself. You wouldn't happen to have any bullets with that cure in them would you?"

Lyla and Diggle smiled knowingly, and Lyla lifted a briefcase that she had carried in with her. "We thought you might feel that way, Floyd," she told him. Walking over to the table and setting the case on it, she flipped open the locks and opened up the case to reveal several hollow bullets filled with the neon blue substance. "A.R.G.U.S. standard issue, soluble tranquilization bullets, now outfitted with the latest strain of mirakuru cure," Lyla explained, plucking one of the bullets from the padded slots. "Once the bullet enters a body, there's a ten second delay before the bullet dissolves and releases the cure, but it'll drop its target immediately on impact."

Deadshot looked at Diggle with a wicked grin. "You hold on to this one, Diggle," he said, referring to Lyla. "She doesn't sound like the kind of woman you want to scorn."

John placed his hand proudly on Lyla's shoulder and replied, "She's not," in an emphatic tone.

"Returning to point," Lyla cut in glaring at Deadshot and then at Diggle, "let's lock and load it. We've got t-minus thirteen hours and counting before Waller brings the entire collective force of A.R.G.U.S.'s reserved fire power down on Starling City."

"Then perhaps it would be wise to move up our time table," came another unexpected voice from the foundry entrance. Everyone turned to find a small legion of dark robed figures being led by a raven-haired woman in a red shoulder _pauldron_ with the black leather-clad Canary next to her.

Sara briefly met Oliver's eyes and grimaced to him. He could see the struggle in her eyes of being caught between doing what was necessary and what was preferable. She, like Oliver, was at a loss, and thereby choosing the lesser of two great dangers.

"How's Felicity?" Oliver asked Sara.

"She was sedated and healing when I left the hospital," Sara answered him quietly.

"How much longer until she's . . . _her_ . . again?" Roy asked hesitantly.

Glancing to the still-operational clock on the foundry wall, Sara distractedly responded, "Twenty minutes, if all goes according to plan. The hyper-healing agent has never been used to heal anything like the trauma Felicity's body sustained during Slade's torture." She worried her bottom lip between her teeth while sending up a silent prayer to whatever deity might be listening that Felicity would be left better rather than worse by their attempts to speed her recovery along. More to herself, she added under her breath, "God I hope this works."

Sara knew she would never forgive herself if it didn't.

* * *

**I**t was as if some cruel entity had poured molten lava in her veins and was shaking it around inside of her. Someone _must_ have thrown her into the fiery depths of hell, Felicity thought; there was no other way humanly possible for her to be experiencing this kind of ungodly agony. Even the pain that Slade had inflicted upon her felt like a tickle compared to the feeling of every single individual molecule in her body buzzing with electricity and threatening to explode. Every inch of her body was covered in the pins-and-needles feeling that came from having the blood flow cut off and reopened again. She wanted to scream and cry and thrash, but the agony she was experiencing made even the slightest movement impossible. She wanted to die, just so that the pain would stop and she could slip into that peaceful state of nothingness.

When Sara had warned her of the immense pain she would feel, Felicity hadn't taken the words to heart. She thought Sara was over-exaggerating, being excessively protective and worried, underestimating Felicity's capabilities. If anything, Sara had been giving Felicity's ability to withstand pain _too much_ credit. Sara had thought too highly of her, put too much faith in Felicity, believed she had more strength than she really did.

Her pulse was racing, her heart rate was dangerously high, her blood pressure was through the roof. Her red blood cells raced to deliver excessive amounts of oxygen and energy to too many different places all at once, her white blood cells were fighting double-time to stave off potential threats, her platelets were hyperactive in their attempts to regenerate. Felicity felt everything too intensely, too much, too quickly, all at once. It felt like the pain would never stop, that her heart would surely seize up or give out before the accelerated healing process was through.

From somewhere in the haze of excruciation, a memory managed to slip through the cracks of Felicity's consciousness. It took root and flourished in the front of her mind, pushing the pain back to the edges of her awareness. Felicity felt the memory wrap itself around her sentience like a protective cocoon.

. . .

_ . . . It was late – or early, depending on how you looked at it – but Felicity was still working on improving the computer's firewalls in the foundry. Roy had taken off days ago and, after finding no trace of him aside from a traffic light snapshot of a red car with stolen license plates leaving Starling City almost a week ago, he had finally turned up on Felicity's radar. Oliver and Digg had been quick to go searching for him in Bl__ü__dhaven where Felicity had picked up an image of him stopping a team of armed robbers outside a jewelry store there. Sara had been with Laurel for most of the past week, both sisters doing whatever they could to plead their father's case after Officer Lance had been arrested for working with the vigilantes. Thea had closed the club upstairs only a few hours ago but already everything was quiet in the lair without their crack team of crime-fighters working their nightly missions. _

_ It was in these quiet, early morning moments, that Felicity allowed herself the time and intemperance to think, to feel, to simply be. She wore so many faces during the day; IT girl, Oliver Queen's assistant, hacker, and Team's Arrow's resident computer genius were only a few of the many; sometimes she forgot what it felt like to just be Felicity. She loved her boys, but between Oliver's over-protectiveness and Digg's over-insightfulness and Roy's over-zealousness, sometimes she grew weary being among them all the time. She liked the quiet peace._

_ The computers had to be rebooted to activate the new, more robust firewalls, so Felicity set up the reboot and stood up. She stretched her tired muscles and looked around the room. The clock on the wall read just after four o'clock in the morning, and for an exhausted and fleeting moment, Felicity was content with the fact that she didn't have to go to work at Queen Consolidated today; Isabel had been quick to terminate her employment soon after assuming the position of permanent CEO at the corporation._

_ In her sleep-deprived state of mind, Felicity's eyes wandered over to the new bow Oliver had spent time trying to teach Roy to use. She looked around, over her shoulders, as if expecting someone else to appear out of nowhere, before she took the bow from its stand and one of the many quivers of arrows from Oliver's makeshift arsenal. Roy hadn't had much luck with archery so far, but Felicity wasn't under the same pressure, she just needed something to keep her anxiety down while the computers were rebooting and the new software was loading._

_ Felicity held the grip of the bow in her non-dominant hand and nocked the arrow to the bowstring. She turned toward the firing dummy and drew the bowstring back with a finger on either side of the arrow nock just as she had watched Oliver do countless times. She held it for a moment, long enough to inhale and exhale calmly, and then let go._

_ The arrow hit its mark just inside the outer ring of the target._

_ "Not bad," said a female voice, causing Felicity to start and nearly drop the bow altogether. She whipped around to find Sara still staring at the arrow. "Closer than Roy, anyway." _

_ Sara came over and placed her hands on either side of Felicity's waist from behind, then took her foot and slid one of Felicity's feet back, just as she had done a few weeks ago when Felicity had been punching the sparring dummy. She expected that Sara would step away after correcting her posture, but that wasn't what happened. Instead, Sara moved closer and leaned down to pick up another arrow. She gently wrapped her left hand around Felicity's on the grip, and put the arrow into the other girl's hand. As Felicity tightened her grip around the projectile, Sara's right hand closed over hers, leading it to nock the arrow once again._

_ "Keep your feet shoulders'-width apart and brace your knees," Sara instructed Felicity quietly. "Keep your upper-body relaxed," – she pulled on Felicity's hand that was holding the nock of the arrow and drew the string back – "relax your grip on the riser, look through the sight window, and aim." Sara paused, waiting patiently as Felicity followed her directions. "Then, take a deep breath, feel your heartbeat, and right between the beats . . . that's when you release."_

_ Felicity waited, felt, and then let go in between the beats. The arrow struck closer to the eye of the target this time, not dead-center but closer than before. She felt Sara step back and a chill hit her back where the other woman had been pressed close. _

_ She lowered the bow and turned to face her unexpected mentor with a slightly sheepish smile. Sara smirked back at her without a trace of hesitation or embarrassment or apology. After a moment of simply looking at each other, Felicity turned away. Trying to keep an appearance of nonchalance, Felicity went about picking up the quiver and bringing it and the bow back to their rightful places._

_ Felicity cleared her throat. "I didn't know you could use a bow and arrow too," she remarked openly._

_ Sara smiled and went over to the glass case that held her suit, withdrawing her weapon. "I'm partial to the b__ō__ staff myself, but I know my way around more than one weapon. The League of Assassins trained me in a variety of weaponry during my time with them," she explained. _

_ "I'd like to try but . . . " Felicity trailed off, biting her lower lip. "You saw how Oliver reacted when he saw me just punching the dummy. He likes to keep me out of the crossfire, behind the computer screens, where I'm safe and I know what I'm doing."_

_ "Well I don't want you in the line of fire either," Sara said emphatically, staring at Felicity with a soft, non-patronizing look, "but, in my experience, sooner or later you find yourself in danger no matter what. It's better to be prepared when it happens." Sara grinned and gestured with her head for Felicity to follow her over to the mats. She looked over her shoulder as they walked and added, "Besides, it wouldn't kill Ollie to loosen the reigns around here a little. I hate to say anything, but everything Roy said before he left? He had a point."_

_ Felicity just barely managed to stop herself from making a comment about whether Sara thought Roy was right about her taking Oliver's side because Sara was having sex with him. That would have been embarrassing, not to mention inappropriate. She wasn't sure they knew each other well enough to make those kinds of remarks._

_ Sara pivoted on the mat, causing Felicity to stop and nearly slam into her. She hurriedly backpedalled but Sara grabbed her upper-arms and slid her hands down to grip Felicity's fingers with her own. The motion felt almost . . . charged . . to Felicity, but that may have been her imagination running wild with her. The way Sara's eyes raked up her body and met Felicity's with a coy look, well, that was probably her imagination too. It had to be._

_ "You ever taken dance lessons?" Sara asked suddenly, seemingly out of the blue._

_ "When I was a kid, and then we had this awkward fine arts requirement in high school and I got put into the dance class and, well, it was sort of mortifying actually," Felicity rambled. She shut up when she caught Sara's amused smirk. "Sorry," she added, blushing bright scarlet._

_ "Don't be. You're cute," Sara told her. It was becoming a regular thing for her to dismiss Felicity's awkwardness with a comment of her being cute instead. "I only ask because hand-to-hand, in any form, is like a dance. It's also like a competition, to see who leads and who follows. If you have the upper hand and you're attacking, then you're leading. If you're just trying to defend yourself against an attack and gain the upper hand, then you're following. Make sense?"_

_ Felicity nodded. "I'm with you so far, but what if I don't know the steps?" she asked, going along with the analogy._

_ "Well that's what I'm going to teach you," Sara explained. "But first, you have to clear out the clutter in your mind, push everything aside, compartmentalize, and empty your mind."_

_ Felicity backed off just a little with a hesitant expression. "Yeah . . . I'm not really the best at that," Felicity admitted. "My mind's kind of always going a million miles per minute. It's lucky I have a fast internal processor, otherwise I'd overload and short circuit."_

_ Sara chuckled a little. "I kind of love it when you speak geek," she told Felicity, causing Felicity to blush profusely. "And that's my whole point. Distractions equal mistakes and, in this case, mistakes can cost you your life, and I don't think I could handle that. So I want you to close your eyes."_

_ Felicity gave Sara and odd look. She liked Sara, but without knowing where the older girl was going with this, she wasn't really sure if she trusted her all that much. Sara was still a newly-retired world-class assassin._

_ "Hey," Sara said softly, squeezing Felicity's hands before moving hers to the other girl's shoulders. "You can trust me, okay? I would never hurt you, Felicity. _Never_."_

_ The sincerity and reverence in Sara's voice let Felicity know that she meant what she said beyond a shadow of a doubt. Felicity let her eyes slip closed and she felt Sara's hands slide back down into hers and their bodies aligned. It was a blatant invasion of personal space, but one that Felicity felt oddly at peace with. Sara was gentler than Felicity thought possible, much more reassuring than expected. _

_ "Focus on something that relaxes you," Sara instructed. "A place, a person, a sound . . . something that comforts you. Push every other thought away except for this one thing. Let it fill your whole mind, lose yourself in it, let it wash over you. Focus on every detail. Have you got it?"_

_ "Yes," Felicity answered, her eyes opening slowly and focusing on the pale green color of Sara's irises. "I think I do."_

_. . ._

Felicity remembered the way Sara had taught her to hone her senses, to focus, to accept the pain that came rather than fight against it.  
"_Fighting against the pain only makes it harder to keep fighting the real threat,"_ Sara had told her. "_Accept it, acknowledge it, then push it to the wayside like everything else. The pain will still be there when the threat is eliminated."_  
Right now that threat was Slade Wilson. That threat was to her safety, to the city she called home, and to the lives and well-beings of the people who mattered the most to her. The others could fight him, but none of them could fight in the way that Felicity did. They needed her, so she needed to stop fighting this pain and let it take her and remake her into herself once more.

Once she allowed herself to face that pain head-on, it began to cease. Not all at once, but gradually. The pain didn't stop, but it started to become something else. Strength. Felicity felt strong.

Her senses slowly returned to her, ebbing back into effect. The pain phased out and the real world refocused again. She could feel scratchy hospital sheets, taste a gross metallic aftertaste in her mouth, smell antiseptic, hear footsteps and pagers going off and the soft unintelligible whispers of Laurel and Sin, and finally, when her eyelids forced themselves open, she could see them, sitting there and casting their gazes between one another and back to Felicity. It was Laurel who was the first to recognize her open eyes.

"Hey," she said softly, her tone coated with concern. She quickly moved to Felicity's bedside. "How are you feeling? Are you okay?"

Felicity pushed herself into a sitting position and moved each of her limbs individually, "Um . . ." After seeing that she could move with only the smallest of twinges in her arms and ribs, Felicity smiled up at Laurel and Sin. "I feel great," she told them in amazement. "Actually I feel like I've been dipped in the River Styx."

Laurel smiled, half-relieved and half-amused. "Don't go getting any _Iliad_ ideas on me," she warned playfully. "Remember that even Achilles had that bad heel."

Sin glanced back and forth between the two, a look of annoyed confusion written on her face. "And I'm officially out of the loop again," she announced, throwing her hands up carelessly. "Somebody wanna fill me in?"

"It's not important," Felicity told her, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and planting her feet on the floor. She smiled at how little pain she experienced from the action, and then she lifted her face to look at her friends, "Did Digg and Lyla get that router set up?"

"Locked, loaded, and ready to go on the roof," Sin answered dutifully.

"Good," Felicity said. She pushed herself to her feet, "Then let's go save the city." She paused and then added excitedly, "I've always wanted to say that!"

With that, she headed for the door and Laurel and Sin exchanged alarmed looks.

"Where are you going?!" Sin demanded, quickly rising to her feet from the chair beside Felicity's vacated hospital bed.

"To the roof!" Felicity called over her shoulder.

Sin cast a look to Laurel. "Um . . . does she know she's still only wearing a hospital gown?" the girl asked uncomfortably.

Laurel wasn't sure how to answer that so she just grabbed a change of Felicity's clothes that Diggle had brought and ran out the door after her friend with Sin on her heels. "Did Sara say anything about any side effects to this miracle healing drug?" she cried as they hurriedly followed the blonde tech through the hallways with several attending staff giving them strange looks on their way.

They reached the flight of stairs with roof access. "You mean the highly experimental miracle healing drug that's never been administered in a controlled environment before?" Sin questioned.

Laurel paused just before the door that would let them out onto the top of the hospital. "Good point," she admitted shortly.

* * *

**I just wanted to say thanks for all the reviews! You guys have been great to me! Keep 'em coming and let me know what you think! xoxo HJ.**


	5. Vantage

– Vantage –

* * *

**T**here was a perfect view of the west-setting sun from the rooftop of Starling General Hospital, and by how low it hung in the sky at this point, it could be presumed that there would only be a few more minutes before it disappeared completely. The rooftop afforded a clear view of the sky above, as well as the rest of the war-torn city below. It was the perfect vantage point.

With this bird's-eye view, Felicity could see all of the destruction and havoc Slade's army had unleashed upon Starling City. If she hadn't been so focused on getting all her equipment fired up and tuned into the comms frequency, her mind might have strayed to wonderings about the lost lives of the citizens below her. Felicity was grateful that her set-up gave her something else to concentrate on.

She heard the crunch of two extra sets of feet on the gravel rooftop behind her as Laurel and Sin raced up to her. Felicity was already fully prepared for a lawyer-sized earful when Laurel stepped up behind her, but instead she felt a soft, warm pair of hands on her shoulders. It was only then that Felicity registered the chilly wind brushing against her barely-covered skin.

"Keep doing whatever you have to do," Laurel told her calmly, "but I'm going to put some actual clothes on you before I have to take you back downstairs to be treated for hypothermia."

As impossible as it seemed, while Felicity continued to work on getting everything connected with a little help from Sin ("No, Sin, the _green_ wire, not the yellow one"), Laurel did manage to get her dressed in record time. Felicity finished setting everything up just as Laurel slid Felicity's leather jacket onto her shoulders, and the wind on the rooftop was no longer an issue. Soon all of their eyes were drawn to the little militia of tablet screens set up in front of them on abandoned crates, as images of the burning city flitted in high-definition before their eyes, and the police scanners crackled in between the fearful voices of officers communicating with one another over the radio in the background.

"It's like déjà vu all over again," Felicity muttered to herself, watching the chaos with horrified eyes. She turned on the audio transceiver on her laptop and took a deep breath as she heard a myriad of opposing voices. "Hello? Tech Support to Team Arrow and Co., can anyone hear me?" she asked in a raised voice.

It took a moment before Oliver's voice came over the wire. "Felicity? Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine, thanks," she told him distractedly. "I'm more worried about Starling City at this point." Felicity looked out over the smoldering building and burning streets. "I've gotta say, our city isn't looking so much 'like a star' right now."

There was a pause and then Diggle's voice asked her suspiciously, "Felicity, where are you right now?"

"On the roof," she answered readily.

Digg groaned. "Felicity, the equipment was supposed to go to your room after you woke up, you weren't supposed to go to the roof!"

Felicity almost rolled her eyes. "Well, I'm here now and I'm fine, and we've got bigger issues," she said before everyone on the other end could have a say. "Plus, I can see everything from up here and Laurel and Sin are with me."

"Just don't fall off the edge," Roy's voice told her. She was glad someone still had a sense of humor right now.

"He sounds like he's joking but he's serious, Felicity. Don't fall," Thea added, her voice tainted with worry.

_Well, there went that theory._

"_Guys_, bigger– _problems_," she reminded them, enunciating each word clearly.

"What do you see, Felicity?" Sara asked her, and Felicity felt a weird pounding in her chest at the sound of the Canary's voice.

Filing that sensation away for later consideration, Felicity stood up from where she had been crouching on the rooftop and she scanned her surroundings and the notable destruction in the city. She could see A.R.G.U.S. vehicles blocking off the bridges in and out of the city in the distance and the blue flashing lights of squad cars parked alongside armored S.W.A.T. trucks surrounding three major areas.

One grouping was larger than the other two and it was on the move. A few dozen yellow-and-black-masked soldiers were traveling like a swarm of locusts, with police vehicles following them with wailing sirens on three sides, but Felicity knew it wasn't enough. She also knew where the soldiers' target was.

"Oliver, are you still at the foundry?" Felicity asked, her voice strained and slightly panicky.

"Yes. Why?" he asked.

She had to remind herself not to panic and to take a breath as she watched the moving militia. "Get out. _Now_," she told him. "Your best bet is going to be to get to the rooftops of the neighboring buildings. Slade's got a whole brigade of soldiers heading for the foundry. If you can get to higher ground and fire down on them . . ."

"–Then we might be able to thin out the mirakuru soldiers before we have to fight them hand-to-hand on the ground," Oliver finished, catching on to her train of thought. "Felicity, you're a genius," he told her proudly.

Felicity grimaced. "Don't praise me just yet."

* * *

**R**ooftops seemed to be the theme of the evening, Sara mused as she crouched down on the top landing of a fire escape across the street from the vacant Verdant building.

She was, by and far, a much better combatant than she was a marksman. Because of this, she had left the first firing attack to Lyla, Digg, and Deadshot on the roof of their first point. Oliver, Roy, and Thea were hidden in the tower next to it, and beside her was Nyssa and her half-dozen well-trained archers who were covering the third perch. They sat in wait, listening to Felicity give them updates over the comms every few minutes.

"This reminds me of Valletta," Nyssa commented in a low, husky tone.

"Which time?" Sara returned dryly.

"Both of them." Giving Sara a sideways glance, Nyssa smiled slyly and added, "Although, if I remember correctly, our second excursion there was much more enjoyable."

Sara didn't say anything in return, as there wasn't much to say. Of course she remembered Valletta. Their first mission there had been the first time Sara had come within a breath of death since joining the League; afterwards, Nyssa had brought her home to Nanda Parbat and pieced her back together with extreme care. The second time was a little harder to look back on, especially when Felicity's voice echoed through the comms with a little more anxiety than before.

"I hope you guys are ready, because they're turning the corner and coming your way . . right . . . _now_," the IT girl warned them.

Sure enough, at that moment, the first of the many super soldiers rounded the corner and came into view. Sara pressed the comm in her ear and spoke, "I see them."

"Can you tell how many?" Digg asked over the connection.

Sara felt a sinking feeling in her heart as more and more soldiers continued rounding the city block into view. "Too many," she answered with a half groan. "At least forty– easily."

"And right now, you guys have the advantage– easily," Felicity said, her confidence clear even over a crackling comm. "You've got seven master assassins, four vigilantes, two delta special forces veterans, four _very_ dangerous criminals, and the entire force of the SCPD on your side. I might just be a tech geek watching from a rooftop, but from where I'm standing, it looks like you guys can do this, and I've got a pretty good view where I'm standing."

Sara decided right then and there that she wanted Felicity to always be around to give her pep talks when she was shaky and uncertain, because hearing Felicity put it like that seemed to make the situation seem not quite so hopeless.

"Okay then," Oliver said. "Everyone ready?"

From her vantage point, Sara saw Digg and Lyla look at each other where they were laying on the rooftop with their rifles set up side-by-side. "Ready," Diggle confirmed.

She heard Deadshot chuckle darkly and take the safety off his own rifle. "Ready."

On the point across the street from the A.R.G.U.S. trio, Oliver and his younger 'Arrows' were preparing themselves. Roy stood in his trademark red hoodie sweatshirt and new crimson mask, and Thea was next to him with a yellow hooded cardigan pulled over up over her head and red lipstick painted around her eyes. Both of them nocked arrows to their bowstrings and pulled back at the ready, looking to Oliver for the proverbial green light. "Ready," they said, nearly in unison.

Following Nyssa's lead, the assassins of the League readied their own weapons and prepared to fire. Sara could see clearly from her perch on the fire escape that Nyssa had a look in her eyes like steel. The thought of battle had driven all of the humanity from her visage, leaving only the cold-blooded warrior underneath.

"Ready," she said in a voice like an arctic blast.

Another half-second passed and Sara could tell the exact moment when the first mirakuru soldier stepped into their trap, just as she heard Oliver's final, "Ready, fire!"

The volley of arrows and bullets that streamed down on the mass of soldiers turned out a fair share of them, and Sara could see the army's remaining comrades looking around for the source of the shots, not knowing that the attack came from three separate directions. Sara counted sixteen fallen soldiers before she was distracted by the fact that their adversaries were catching on to their tactics and beginning to make their way toward the fire escapes themselves.

Sara pulled her bō staff from its carrier on her back and stood. "That's my cue," she said, making a move to descend the grated iron stairs.

Before she could even register what was happening, Sara found herself being pulled back from the ledge and held in a strong, single-armed hold. The moment her lips made contact with those of another, Sara recognized what was happening. She recognized the tangy taste and suppleness of the lips molding with hers and all the individual contours of the body pressed flush to her front. Of their own volition, her hands rose to brush fingertips across familiarly smooth cheeks. The world ebbed away for a split second and then snapped harshly back into focus in the next. When the lips broke away from hers, Sara felt like the world seemed somehow sharper than before, rather than hazy as she had come to expect.

Nyssa's dark eyes bored into hers with the final faintest glimmer of emotion left in the assassin. "Be careful, _Ta-er al-Sahfer_," the raven-haired woman told Sara, before turning back to the battle at hand.

* * *

**F**elicity felt her stomach twist painfully as she listened to the conversations of her friends as they spoke to one another with ragged breaths in between the shots fired and the telltale _whoosh_ of arrows whistling ruthlessly through the air. Despite her rallying words of encouragement, Felicity was perhaps even more afraid than the members of her team who were actually in the middle of the fray. She wished she could be out there with them, watching the scene play out first hand rather than on the grainy, pixilated, black-and-white feed of neighboring security cameras. She kept trying to clear the footage up, but the cameras were out-dated and poorly rigged.

She looked up and met Laurel's eyes over the screens. Almost as soon as the fighting had begun, Laurel had moved to the blind side of the monitors, and Felicity understood without explanation that she did not want to be a helpless spectator in all of this. She too would have preferred to be in the middle of it all, rather than outside the sidelines. There was a sadness and a worry in her pale hazel eyes, but there was also a question that she silently directed to Felicity.

_Are you okay?_ she seemed to want to ask.

"I'm fine," she answered out loud, unintentionally garnering Sin's attention.

Sin was laying on her stomach on the edge of the roof, looking in the direction of the fight through a pair of binoculars. Exactly _where_, _when_, and _how_ the teenager had acquired binoculars, Felicity was not sure. Given Sin's rep on the streets, Felicity was fairly certain that she was safer not knowing whether Sin had stolen them from some unsuspecting pedestrian or not.

"Dude, _I'm_ not 'fine'," she said emphatically. "The _last_ thing I ever needed to hear was the sound of Sara macking on some hot assassin chick! Hinky."

"Sin, stay on point, please," Felicity told her, silently agreeing with the younger woman. _She_ would have happily gone through her entire life without needing to hear Sara kissing Nyssa al Ghul as well, if she were being honest. She sighed. "No one's really telling me much about the battle and . . . _yup_, Slade's men just took out my last good camera on the street. Talk to me, Sin. What's happening?"

"Well . . ." Sin began, peering through the lenses of her binoculars, "Digg's team are a bunch of total beasts. Every time they fire, one of those super-dudes drops. Same with the assassin chick and her guys, but, you know, . . . _whatever_. I'm Team Felicity anyway."

Felicity picked her head up from trying to regain feed from a camera _somewhere_ to look at the youthful brunette. "Sin, what are you talking about?" she asked suspiciously.

Sin looked over her shoulder at Felicity long enough to stare at the blonde as if she had sprouted a second head. "Team Felicity," she repeated, as if it were obvious and this should have cleared everything up.

Felicity looked to Laurel for some sort of possible explanation, but Laurel held her hands up in front of her as if to say 'don't ask me, I'm not even going there'. Shaking her head to free her mind of that particular conversation, Felicity tried to reign in her impatience and not sound short with Sin. The girl was only eighteen, she was bound to make no sense sometimes, Felicity surmised.

"Sin, _focus_. Before I take those binoculars from you so I can keep track myself," she threatened in what she hoped was a playful manner.

"Okay, okay, _sheesh_," Sin grumbled. "Um . . . the mirakuru guys are thinning out pretty heavily now. Ollie just shot three arrows at once and all but one of them hit a soldier. Sara just jumped down off a fire escape and took down two more. _Whoa!_ That one was close! HEY, WATCH IT, ABERCROMBIE!"

"WHAT?!" Laurel and Felicity exclaimed in unison.

"Oh. Roy almost hit Sara while she was dodging one of the soldier's fists but it missed her and . . . now the soldier's down. That 'Twerk' guy stabbed him in the neck with a syringe or something."

"Torque," Felicity corrected.

"What?" Sin asked distractedly.

"Dudley Soames, he calls himself 'Torque', not 'Twerk'," Laurel explained to the girl.

"I don't care if he calls himself 'Tootles', he just saved our girl," Sin told them. She looked back through her binoculars and suddenly screamed, "OH SHIT!"

"FELICITY!" Oliver yelled unexpectedly through the comms at that same moment. "Where are my eyes?!"

"I don't have any!" Felicity answered him desperately. "They took out every accessible camera within sight!" She looked at the girl watching through the binoculars and asked, "SIN! What just happened?"

* * *

**R**oy was not ashamed to admit that he screamed like a newborn baby when he felt something sharp enter his back and cut straight through his torso unexpectedly. He dropped to his knees and, distantly it seemed, he could hear someone else (_Thea_, he thought) scream too. Oliver's startled shout of, "Roy!" somehow made it through his hazy mind clearer.

Thea jumped over Roy's fallen body and stood defensively between her boyfriend and the crazy-eyed female Slade-look-alike. Beyond the mask, she knew who this woman was, but it wasn't until Oliver yelled a name that she put the identity of this woman together.

"Isabel!"

Anger seethed out of Thea in waves. _Isabel Rochev_, the woman who had taken her family's livelihood, and now Thea knew that she had had a hand in her mother's death and Roy's mirakuru-injection as well. She knew Ollie's stance on killing, but she seriously considered the consequences of putting an arrow through the gaping black hole that surely existed where Isabel Rochev's frigid heart should have been. This woman had taken everything from Thea; her boyfriend, her mother, her club, her _life_. Why _shouldn't_ she return the favor?

_Because it's not who you are, Thea._

She remembered back to the day she was set to leave Starling City, when all of this began. Her bags were packed, her train ticket was booked, and her cab had been called. Then Felicity Smoak, of all people, had burst through the Queen Mansion doors and turned her world upside-down and set it straight all with one sentence.

. . .

_"You can't leave Starling City," Felicity had all but yelled at her. The wild look in her eye and the desperate plea in her voice were the only things that kept Thea from ignoring her completely. She knew that tone; it was the one she used while pleading with Ollie to tell her the truth, to talk to her, to talk to _somebody_._

_ "Why not?" she had demanded petulantly in spite of knowing all that._

_ Felicity had hesitated for all of half a second, but when Thea rolled her eyes and reached for her suitcase handle, it was as if the words exploded unbidden from Felicity's mouth, "Because Oliver is The Arrow and he's about to hand himself over to the same man who murdered your mother and he NEEDS you, Thea!"_

_ Remembering back on it, Thea would always say that that was the moment that her world stopped and then started spinning backwards. _Oliver_ as the vigilante? He had been acting weird since he came home, but had he really been acting _that_ weird? She had known the answer almost as soon as the question had filtered into her mind. _Yes._ It made no sense, and yet it made all the sense in the world._

_ "What could he possibly need _me_ for?" Thea had asked with self-deprecation. "All I am is the daughter of two mass murderers. Why do you think _I_ can help _him_? If my brother is the hero, then doesn't that make me the product of the villains?"_

_ Felicity had stepped up to her, placed both hands on Thea's shoulders, and met her eyes with steady determination and genuine understanding. "Because that's not who you are, Thea," Felicity had told her. Thea had tried to look away but Felicity had caught her gaze once again. "Listen to me. You can't change who or where you came from, _believe me_, but _you_ are the only person who gets to decide who _you_ are and where you go from here. It's _your_ choice. It's your decision, Thea. We aren't defined by who gave us life, we're defined by who _we_ choose to be in the life we're given." Felicity's eyes had been so blue and so honest as she told Thea, "If you want to be a hero, Thea, then _be_ a hero. No one else gets to tell you can't be. Not your mother, not your father, not your brother. Just you." Felicity paused and smiled at her, squeezing her shoulders in encouragement. "So stay. Stay and be a hero, if that's what you want. You've got my vote of confidence. You're a good person, Thea. Evil isn't inherited, it's a choice. I know you're a good person. You'll make the right choice."_

. . .

"I've lost a lot because of you," Thea told the woman. "I could kill you where you're standing and I wouldn't shed a tear or lose a second of sleep over it."

"Big talk for a little girl," Isabel taunted her with a smug smirk that Thea had every intention of slapping off in a second.

"People aren't born evil, it's a choice you make," Thea told her. She nocked another arrow and raised her bow, pointing the arrowhead at Isabel. "You chose wrong."

Isabel scoffed. "You think I'm evil?"

Thea chuckled darkly. "No, I think you're a delusional, cold-hearted bitch," she stated frankly, "but that's beside the point." She leveled her shot.

"_Speedy,_" Oliver said to her in a low warning voice.

"Isabel Rochev, you have failed this city and everyone in it," Thea told her. "You chose wrong." She let go of the arrow and let it fly.

"THEA!" Oliver screamed at her as he watched the arrow embed itself into Isabel's chest. Then he caught sight of the tip. It was an injection arrow, filled with the mirakuru cure.

For a split second, Oliver felt his heart grow lighter, knowing that his sister had not been shooting to kill, but then he watched as Isabel stumbled back from the force of the hit. She took three staggering backwards steps and then her heel caught the edge of the open rooftop. As if everything had slowed down, he watched Isabel grope senselessly as she toppled over the edge of the brick building and fell. He stared for several seconds at the edge where the CEO had been only seconds ago, certain that she would somehow crawl up the side of the building like a spider. Several seconds passed and there was still only empty air.

"Ollie!" he heard Thea cry, and he whipped back around to tell Thea it wasn't her fault, only to find his sister leaning over her bleeding boyfriend. Oliver rushed over just as Thea was quickly descending into hysterics. "She stabbed him! She stabbed him! Oh God, Ollie, she ran him through with her sword! He's bleeding! There's so much blood!"

"OLIVER! What's happening?" Felicity's voice was asking in Oliver's ear comm.

"Roy's been hurt. Isabel ran him through," he explained, turning the audio of the comm on auto so he wouldn't have to press the comm for her to hear him every time he spoke. "He's lost a lot of blood already."

* * *

**F**elicity stood up abruptly, drawing the eyes of Laurel and Sin to her once again. She had a wild look in her eyes and her face was red from screaming at Oliver and Thea. There was no way she could do this from her safe little nest atop a hospital full of medical staff, especially now that Roy was hurt and she had a way to save him.

"Is there anything left of the hyper-healing agent?" Felicity demanded, already shifting through her bag for a USB cord.

"Sure, the geeks at S.T.A.R. Labs made a few extra vials, just in case," Sin answered. She reached inside her inner jacket pocket and drew one out, "But I have them all with us here. Why?"

Plugging her phone into her laptop and starting up a sync, Felicity answered, "Because without the mirakuru in his system, Roy won't heal from an injury like that fast enough to survive on his own. He needs the healing agent. _Now_." Her phone beeped positively, letting her know that the sync was complete, and she disconnected her cell from her laptop and stuck the phone in her pocket. She plucked the vial from Sin's grasp and continued, "Which is why I need to get this to him."

"Felicity, they're all the way across town! And how do you plan on leaving the hospital?" Laurel questioned, following Felicity toward the stairs access.

"I was thinking I'd just walk out the door," Felicity answered. "The hospital is over capacity and under-staffed. No one is going to miss me."

Laurel finally managed to grab hold of Felicity's arm and pull her to a stop. "You can't go out there alone. It's too dangerous," she said firmly, hoping that this would put an end to Felicity's delusions.

"That's why you're coming with me and we're calling your father," Felicity supplied rationally.

"Well, if the two of you are gone, who's going to man the systems here?" Sin asked.

Felicity put both hands on Sin's shoulders. "You are," she answered. "I've already synced my phone to the laptop, and the cameras are all down anyway, so there's really nothing we can do about that. If we need anything else then I can talk you through the process. Other than that, this is probably the safest building in the entire city right now, you'll be okay here."

Both of the other two women stared at her for a long moment, and then Laurel finally groaned in defeat.

"Sometimes I love that you can figure everything out in a heartbeat, Felicity, and other times I really, really don't," Laurel told her. "Sin?"

The youngest of them kicked a stone across the rooftop and reluctantly relented, "Yeah, okay. Fine. I guess if it's for Roy then I can roll with it, but I'm totally kicking his ass once he's all healed up. I _told him_ to _watch_ his back, not get himself stabbed through it!"

Felicity beamed and grabbed Sin's chin. "Oh, Sin, I'm totally keeping you around just for your comedic relief in dire situations," she told the young girl, pulling her in and planting a kiss on her forehead. "Thank you."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Just go before I change my mind and start freaking out," Sin ordered them.

* * *

"**O**liver, how bad is Roy?" Diggle asked, covering Lyla's head as the soldiers' reinforcements showed up with fire power and began directing it at them.

Meanwhile, across the street on the opposite rooftop, Oliver and Thea were dragging Roy into the rooftop stairwell for cover. Once grenades had started being thrown their way, they had decided it might be a good idea to move Roy to a safer location, but the blood trail that they left behind as they dragged him was enough to turn both their stomachs. Thea had only just stopped freaking out.

"Still bleeding. God, I don't even have anything to staunch the flow," Oliver answered, his tone fraught with stress.

"Ollie, I'm trying to get to you guys but I'm having to fight my way through and these guys just keep popping up," Sara informed him.

She was trying to force her way through every small opening she could find in the army's ranks. It felt like for every foot she gained, she lost ten yards. She felt someone nudge her back and she was just about to turn and put a syringe in their neck when they spoke to her.

"I'm covering you," Nyssa assured her, firing two more arrows in quick succession into a duo of soldiers. "Go. Save your friend. I'm right behind you, my men can cover our post."

Somehow, with Nyssa staying true to her word and covering her, Sara finally made it to the old warehouse where Oliver, Thea, and Roy had put up a firing outlook. Once they were inside, Sara began tearing into crates in search of supplies. She found a crate of cotton t-shirts, a bottle of gin, and duct tape, which wasn't very satisfactory but was better than nothing.

They ran up all six flights of stairs and finally found Roy, Oliver, and Thea in the stairwell that opened out onto the roof. Roy looked paler than Sara could ever remember seeing him and she could see how much blood he had lost just in the time since he had been moved to the stairwell. He was conscious, but just barely, and sweating like a sauna.

"Jeez, Roy," she scolded him lightly, crouching down and examining the damage, "if I didn't know you better I would think you had a death wish."

Roy tried to laugh but it came out as more of a cough and he hissed at the pain it caused him. "Always in the wrong place at the wrong time," he returned weakly.

Sara craned her neck and pushed aside what was left of Roy's signature red hoodie to get a better look. "The good news is, it was through and through. No major organs were harmed in the making of this catastrophe," she joked. "The bad news is, you've lost a lot of blood, so that blade had to have nicked _something_ going through, but I can't tell where the bleeder is just from looking at it."

"Do what you have to do," Roy told her trustingly.

Sara winced. "I would have to cut you open even more do to that," she said.

"Do it," he said.

"DON'T DO IT!" Felicity screamed over the comms. "Laurel and I are on our way with the healing serum. Do _not_ go getting _McGuyver_ on me, Lance!"

* * *

**F**elicity and Laurel were almost out of the hospital and home-free. They had just stepped out the doors and were looking around for Detective Lance's cruiser when Felicity met the eyes of someone else familiar. Her stared back at her in disbelief and she knew they were _so_ busted.

"Miss Smoak?" Dr. Hamilton asked, eyes wide in suspicion as he eyed her upright state. "That's impossible," he said breathlessly. "You were . . . and now you're . . ."

"Doctor, I would love to stand here with you and explain to you all the reasons why this is possible, but I don't have that kind of time right now. My friend is hurt and he needs to be given the same thing that healed me," Felicity explained.

"I can't just let you leave," Dr. Hamilton argued. "Your condition was . . ."

"–And now my condition _isn't_," Felicity interjected. "Please, sir, you have to understand. My friend is a hero, and a lot more innocent people are going to die if I don't get this to him." Felicity held up the vial of hyper-healing serum.

Dr. Hamilton looked at her with distrust. "And that . . . _that_" – he pointed to the vial – "will heal your friend as quickly as it healed you?" he asked with caution. His eyes met Felicity's, "What is it you're into, Miss Smoak?"

In the distance, blue lights flashed and sirens wailed. Laurel grabbed Felicity's elbow and began dragging her toward the squad car that appeared with Det. Lance at the wheel. "Don't say anything else," Laurel advised her like any good lawyer would.

"Wait!" Dr. Hamilton called after them, jogging to keep up. The women and turned back to the doctor. "Let me come with you," Hamilton said. "If your friend's condition is anywhere _near_ as dire as yours was, Miss Smoak, he'll need more than a miracle healing drug. I can help you."

Felicity looked to Laurel for her opinion just as Quentin pulled to a stop in front of them and yelled, "Get in! Quick!"

Both girls' eyes went from the doctor, to one another, and back again.

It was finally Felicity who said, "What you see tonight, you can never tell anyone about. If you do, I can _promise_ you that your bank accounts _will_ be cleared out into nonrefundable charitable donations and your credit score will plummet so severely that you will be living in a cardboard box next to Ernie the Friendly Hobo for the next five years. Do we have an understanding?"

The doctor nodded his head, looking like he knew Felicity meant every word.

"Then get in if you're coming, Dr. Hamilton," Laurel told him.

The doctor climbed into the police cruiser in the passenger seat next to Quentin. He greeted the policeman and then turned back to Laurel and Felicity. "Since we're all becoming so close, I guess you can call me by my first name," he offered. "It's Emil."

"Well then welcome aboard the crazy train, Dr. Emil Hamilton," Det. Lance told him wryly.

* * *

"**F**elicity, _are– you– insane_?" Oliver demanded in a quiet hiss, checking over his shoulder every few seconds in the direction of the doctor who was fixing up their friend. "The list of people who know our secret is already a mile long, and you want to add a _complete stranger_ to that list?"

"In her defense," Laurel began, holding up a hand to silence Oliver's next onslaught of anxious chastisements, "he _did_ see her upright and running back into danger not a week after he practically brought her back from the dead during surgery, and she's not much of a liar. Making up a justification for this" – Laurel gestured to Felicity's almost-completely healed body – "on the spot is pretty hard to do. Even I was at a loss as to how to rationalize this."

"Plus, now we have an M.d. to add to our list of non-vigilante assets," Felicity added. "Detective, lawyer, government agent, doctor . . . see where I'm going with this?"

Oliver looked back and forth between the two women while opening and closing his mouth several times, until the building shook suddenly with the force of yet another explosion outside the stairwell. The light flickered briefly and everyone looked up and around with worry. Oliver threw another glance at Dr. Hamilton before switching back to Laurel and Felicity. Then he caught sight of Thea standing over Roy's prone body and his resolve softened a little at the look on his sister's face as the doctor injected Roy with the healing serum.

"Ollie," Sara broke through his reverie with a tired sigh, "they did the right thing, okay? There's no way I could have fixed Roy on my own with what I had. I was taught biochemistry, not medicine. They probably saved his life. Isn't that worth one more person knowing the truth about all this?"

The two heroes stared at each other for several long moments, neither of them willing to be the first to give up ground.

"If it helps," Hamilton interrupted after awhile, still working on disinfecting Roy's wound, "I am, by law of course, bound to doctor-patient confidentiality. I would say that this applies, Mr. Queen. Besides, I rather like my credit score as it is."

Oliver cut his eyes to Felicity, who shrugged.

"I gave him stipulations for coming with us," she said indignantly. "Ye of little faith, Oliver. It's like you don't even know me."

Whatever was left of Oliver's resolution finally gave out, and it was visible in his posture as he turned to Dr. Hamilton. "I realize that this is probably a lot to take in, doctor," he began, but Hamilton spoke before he could say more.

"Mr. Queen, I worked for S.T.A.R. Labs for years, there's little that surprises me anymore," he admitted, as if this weren't necessarily a good thing. "Although, seeing Ms. Smoak as she is now compared to this morning, I have to admit that that did catch me off-guard."

Oliver sent Felicity a look. "She has that effect on people," he muttered, before turning away and asking Diggle for an update over the comms.

Sara moved closer to Felicity and gently poked her in the ribs experimentally. Felicity moved away from the contact, but, from the smile on her face, Sara could say with confidence that it wasn't out of pain. Satisfied that Felicity was in better shape, she simply stood close with her friend, their shoulders resting against one another as they sort of leaned into each other.

"How are you feeling?" Sara asked, just to be sure.

"Tired," Felicity answered honestly. "And a little weak, to be honest. Nothing that can't be fixed with an order of beef chow fun, a bubble bath, and twelve hours of sleep after all of this is over."

"Hey, I'll bring the food and my Rockets jammies and we'll recuperate together after all of this is over," Sara told her, leaning in a little more without putting too much weight against Felicity.

Felicity smiled and exhaled a soft laugh. "It's a date." As per usual, it was only once the words were out of her mouth that Felicity realized the implications of her words, and she tried to backpedal, spinning her wheels as she did so. "I mean . . . uh, not a '_date'_ date– Not that that's not–! What I meant was–"

"Felicity?" Oliver called.

It was spoken under her breath, but Sara still heard Felicity's, "Oh, thank you, God," before she quickly turned to Oliver and asked in a much more audible voice, "Yes, sir? I mean, Ollie– _Oliver_. Yes, Oliver?"

Oliver gave her an odd look. "Are you okay, Felicity?" he asked.

"Yea– Ha, um. Yes," she answered, still flustered from her own faux pas. She cleared her throat. "I'm fine," she clarified more confidently. "What was it you needed?"

Oliver looked a little impatient with her inattention. "Can you and Laurel take Dr. Hamilton and Roy back to the secondary lair?" he asked. "Diggle said that the number of mirakuru soldiers in thinning out here, but Sin says that the police scanners have been going off about sightings of them in other locations around the city." He spoke slowly to her, keeping his eyes fixed on hers to make sure she focused and understood what he was asking of her and why.

"Should we get Sin off the hospital roof?" she asked.

Oliver smirked. "I don't know. It sounds like she's having fun playing Team Arrow's spotter from the safety of her outlook post," he said. "Plus, it's a major help having her looking out up there. Maybe we should leave her for now."

Felicity smiled and nodded, but the smile quickly faded as another thought wrapped itself around her brain. She reached down and squeezed Sara's hand before taking Oliver by the elbow and leading him to a more secluded area of their makeshift bunker. He gave her a worried look.

"What's wrong? You're wearing your 'something's off' expression," he commented.

"Something _is_ off," Felicity said. "Oliver, you've been fighting for . . how long now? Two– three hours? We haven't seen any sign of Slade Wilson. That worries me. I hate to sound negative but none of this means anything if we can't get to Slade."

"I know that," Oliver agreed, "but if we can revert his monsters back into men then that eliminates the immediate threat to Starling City. After that, this becomes less of a defense and more of an offense. We'll find him, or he'll find us. That's one thing we can count on."

Felicity nodded, accepting that whatever words Oliver had to offer right now, they were not the ones that would alleviate the melancholic pressure and pain in her heart and in her chest. She glanced across the stairwell corridor to find Sara watching them warily and wondered if Sara could feel this pressure too, or if it were only her. Either way, she knew that it wasn't going away any time soon.

She made a move to help Laurel and Dr. Hamilton move Roy, but she was stopped by Oliver's hand on her arm. She looked up to meet his eyes.

"Thank you, Felicity. You've done more in the last few days than I ever could have asked of you, and you've held onto yourself while you've done it. You're the strongest person I know," he told her.

Felicity shook her head. "All I've done is what's necessary of me," she answered humbly. With a smirk, she added, "I've just done it _really_ well."

Oliver smiled. "You always do."

With that, Oliver moved past her and made his way up the stairs and slipped out the door. Nyssa al Ghul, Felicity noticed, followed suit but not before pausing on the stop step and looking over her shoulder at Sara expectantly. Sara nodded for her to go on and the assassin seemed to concede after a moment of hesitation. Sara turned back to Felicity, whose eyes were still on the door Nyssa had exited out of.

"Do you remember what I asked of you?" Felicity asked her. "When you told me to keep fighting, when we were talking about the effects of the healing serum?"

Sara nodded, looking at Felicity with concerned eyes. "You asked me not to leave without saying goodbye," she remembered aloud.

Felicity nodded. "Forget about that, okay? Just . . . instead, promise me that you'll do what makes you happy? _Only_ what makes _you_ happy. It doesn't matter whether you stay or go, as long as you do it for you, then I– _we_ will _all_ know that you're happy, Sara. If that's not enough, then I don't know what will be."

Sara could see the look in Felicity's eyes, the defeat and the loss and the acceptance of both, but, as for Sara herself, she was in shock. No one had ever simply told her to do what made her happy, and even if they had, they certainly hadn't meant it as genuinely as Felicity so obviously did. Sara took Felicity's hands and she knew she was doing the right thing.

"Listen to me, okay? Even if I have to leave for awhile, I will _always_ find my way back home. _That_ is what I will promise you," Sara told her. "But I'm not going anywhere right away. This is my home, here, with all of you. This is where I belong, and this is where I'm going to make my stand. Anywhere else I go? That's just a detour on my way back. Being here is what makes me happy."

Felicity smiled and briefly touched Sara's cheek. "Good, because I can't really picture you anywhere else," she said. More solemnly, she added, "Be careful out there. Dying is not an option, got it?"

Sara laughed. "Yes ma'am," she replied dutifully. Slowly she leaned in and kissed Felicity's cheek. "You be careful too."


	6. Heart

**A/N: I just want to thank everyone so much for all the support and encouragement and constructive criticism! You have all been so great! On a sidenote: I realized that Sara's League name is actually Ta-er al-_Asfer, _not _Sahfer_, so I will be changing that. Anyway, onto the story!**

* * *

–Heart–

* * *

**T**he cool night air blowing against the sheen of sweat on Sara's exposed skin was the only thing keeping her core temperature down as she dodged and blocked and parried and stabbed her way through the melee of mirakuru soldiers. She ducked as one of the soldiers dove toward her, causing him to sail over her back and tumble onto the ground on the other side of her. Sara spun, grabbed one of the arrows from the quiver of the nearest archer, and turned back around just in time to stab the attacker in the neck.

She heard a war cry come from somewhere and she turned toward the source of the noise to find yet another soldier taking a run at her. From the speed at which he was crossing the distance between them, Sara knew she wasn't going to be able to fend him off without sustaining injury herself. She raised her forearm in a reflexive instinct to defend herself, but the soldier crashed into her arm-first, knocking her to the ground just as she registered a resounding _crack_. It was another moment before the shock wore off and she was able to feel the searing pain in her wrist, but she cried out when she did.

The soldier was crouched down over her, about to deliver the final blow, when an arrow cut through the air and punctured the dead-center of his chest. He fell to the ground unconscious a moment later, and Sara rolled onto her stomach to see who had saved her. Nyssa stood for a moment, still holding her bow aloft, as a look of satisfaction crossed the visible part of her face.

By chance, Sara happened to see a figure looming over Nyssa's shoulder, and she tried to cry out in warning, "Nyssa!", but the soldier was already too close. He grabbed Nyssa from behind and held his sword to her neck. Just as he was about to draw his blade across her throat and take Nyssa's life before Sara's very eyes, the soldiers entire body locked up and he crumpled to the ground with another arrow between his shoulder blades.

Nyssa touched her throat protectively and turned around. She said nothing when she found Quentin Lance standing behind her looking down at the soldier's unmoving body, but when he looked back up to her, she nodded in a sign of respectful thanks. He simply responded in kind, before rushing over to Sara.

"Honey, you okay?" he asked her with his typical tone of fatherly concern.

"Yeah, Dad, I'm fine," Sara lied in answer, turning over again.

The detective tried to grab her hand to help her up, but she hissed in pain and drew away when he touched her injured hand. It wasn't painful enough to be a break but she knew from experience that it wasn't dislocated either. She tried to remember when it had begun hurting, if it was before or after she hit the ground. If she injured it when she fell, it might just be a sprain. If she had injured it when Slade's goon had hit her, it was more likely fractured.

"Your hand," Nyssa commented as she came closer.

For a moment, Sara wondered why their poorly-guarded group of three wasn't being attacked by more combatants, until she looked around. All she could see for a solid city block was a sea of unconscious soldiers. The only people left standing were Nyssa, Quentin, six heavily breathing League assassins, and Oliver. The sudden silence was deafening and the calmness in the air felt foreign now.

"Ninth Street and Harbor Drive are clear," Oliver – as The Arrow – said over the comms as he made his way over to their group.

They heard a shot fired on the other end of the connection at the same time that they heard it echo off the surrounding buildings. "Ditto on Bridgeton Ave," Diggle answered from his end. "How's everyone on your end?"

The Arrow arrived and crouched down next to Sara. He slipped an arm around her waist from her uninjured side and helped her to her feet. "Sara's been injured," he answered.

Sara tapped on the audio on her comm. "It's just a sprain. I'm fine" – she glared at Oliver pointedly for his overreaction – "_really_," she assured them. "So where to next, Sin?"

From her lookout perch atop the hospital building, Sin scanned the city through her binoculars before answering. "It's up to you, I guess," she replied. "The only soldiers I see left are loners and the SCPD's doing a pretty good job rounding them up and finishing them off– figuratively, I mean."

Oliver, Sara, Nyssa, and Lance stood in a circle, the other assassins hanging back dutifully. They looked at each other.

"We should go back to the lair and regroup," Oliver suggested. "We still need to find Slade and end this for good."

"What are you gonna do?" Sara asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

Oliver was silent for a moment. "Whatever it takes," he answered, before turning away and pressing his comm again. "Sin, we're going to meet up back at the lair, okay?"

"I'll go and get her at the hospital," Lance offered. "I don't like the idea of her trying to make her way back by herself. She's just a kid."

"I'm eighteen," Sin interjected, "but if it means I get a free ride in a police cruiser without doing hard time, then I'll roll with it."

Sara rolled her eyes at Sin's spunky response and hugged her father as he left to retrieve their youngest member. "He's on his way," she told Sin. Then she added, "Felicity, how's everyone on your end?"

They were met with complete silence.

"Felicity?" Still no response. "Thea?" More silence. "Roy?" Oliver asked a little more worriedly. He exchanged glances with Sara.

"Maybe they took their ear pieces out. I'll try Felicity's cell," Sara said, grabbing her phone from her inside jacket pocket and pressing Felicity's button on her speed dial.

It rang.

And rang . .

And rang . . .

And rang . . . .

And then, "_Hey, you've reached Felicity Smoak. Leave a message_."

Sara lowered her phone from her ear, her eyes never leaving Oliver's gaze. "Something's wrong, Ollie."

Just as she said this, Oliver's phone began ringing and he quickly answered it. "Yeah."

"I hear you're looking for me," Slade's voice came through the line. "I suggest you look harder, kid, and I would do it quickly if I were you."

"What's the rush?" Oliver demanded.

"I have something of yours. _Someone_ of yours. I must say, that photo didn't do her any justice," Slade answered slyly. "See you soon, kid."

* * *

**F**elicity groaned and coughed as she came to and tried to take a breath, only to suck in dust and stale air. She pushed herself to her hands and knees and peered at her surroundings through the cracked lenses of her glasses.

The lights had clearly fallen when the ceiling had collapsed, only to be held from crushing them by a single support beam in the middle of the room that had miraculously been left standing. Glass was shattered across the floor and sparks flew from a few still-flickering lightbulbs. Furniture and equipment was broken, dust was clouding the air, and debris had completely covered most of the area.

Felicity dropped her head and closed her eyes, trying to clear the fog from her mind and remember what had happened here. She remembered telling Sara to be careful. She remembered Thea requesting to go back to the lair with Felicity, Laurel, Dr. Hamilton, and the injured Roy, citing that she could protect them while the others went on to take care of the remaining mirakuru soldiers. She remembered coming back to the lair, and then . . .

. . .

_Hamilton had taken Roy to a curtained off section of the room that they had hurriedly did their best to sterilize and then Felicity had set up shop at her panel of computer screens. She had brought up a map of the city's grid and activated the team's tracking devices to locate precisely where they were in Starling City at the moment. She had color-coded their pinpoints, and she could see that Oliver's green point was with Sara's yellow, slowly moving southward to where Ninth Street met Harbor Drive. Digg and Lyla's respective navy and indigo points were covering ground across Bridgeton Avenue. Her own light blue dot was at rest right next to Roy's red one._

_ "Will I get a cool colored dot on the map?" Laurel asked from over her shoulder._

_ "Hey, if she gets one, then so do I," Thea added. "Can I be gold?"_

_ "It's just to keep track of them," Felicity explained. "It looks like everyone is safe. Well, _our_ people are clearly safe. I didn't dare put homing devices on the League assassins, I'm pretty sure not a single one of them would waste the chance to kill me."_

_ Laurel looked at the map and smiled faintly at Felicity's comment. "I don't blame you, but what about Sin? She's not on here either," she pointed out._

_ "I'll call her," Thea offered, already taking out her phone and dialing the familiar number._

_ "Oh, I wouldn't bother."_

_ Felicity whipped her head around in the direction of the entrance to find Slade Wilson walking down the stairs dressed for combat. Without even a second thought, she grabbed an aluminum injection arrow off Oliver's workbench beside her and gripped it tightly in her hand behind her back. She stared daggers at the man who had spent hours on end torturing her with unremorseful cruelty._

_ "I have it on good authority that your friend atop the hospital building is perfectly well," Slade finished conversationally._

_ Thea let the phone drop from her ear. "If you hurt her–"_

_ "You'll what?" Slade pouted mockingly. "Are you going to kill me, Miss Queen? Or should I call you Miss Merlyn?" He laughed at the anger that flared in Thea's eyes. "I have no intentions of hurting your friend. Why would I . . . when the person I'm truly after is in this room?"_

_ "Oliver's not here," Felicity spoke up, trying to draw Slade's attention away from Thea. "He's still out fighting your goons, but you're _not_ welcome to wait."_

_ As predicted, Slade turned on Felicity. "You _are_ quite lively for a dead woman, Miss Smoak," he remarked. "I see your wit has not been diminished by your recent rise from the dead."_

_ "Nope, but I'm whole lot more pissed off than I was before," Felicity shot back angrily. "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. I guess I have you to thank for that."_

_ "Why don't you and I just let bygones be bygones?" Slade suggested. "After all, everything I'm after is right _here_!" _

_ In the blink of an eye, Slade had surged forward and grabbed Laurel, who shrieked and tried to break free of his ironclad grasp as she was pulled into Slade's chest. Thea had grabbed her bow off the table and nocked an arrow which was now aimed for Slade's head, but it was a sharpened point, meant to cut through flesh and bone. If she fired it, it would kill Slade. Laurel was fighting so hard to escape Slade's hold, but with the mirakuru still pumping confidently through his veins, she didn't stand a chance. _

_ Felicity held her hand out to stop him. "Wait," she begged. She took a few hesitant steps toward the man who held her friend. "Oliver says that the two of you were friends once, that you cared about him." Felicity forced herself to meet the eyes of the man who had every intention of killing everyone she loved as she continued to close the distance between them. "Well I think that you still do. Deep, deep down. _Way _deep down. Slade, this drug – the mirakuru – it makes you crazy. I've seen how it can warp a person's mind, and that was just after they had lived with it for a few months. I can't _imagine_ what this stuff could do to a man's mind after five years, but we have the cure. This doesn't have to end badly."_

_ Slade looked down on her condescendingly. "I'm afraid it does," he answered._

_ Felicity nodded. "I guess I should have expected as much," she sighed. "Badly it is then." _

_ She pulled the arrow from behind her back and took the remaining steps between them at a run. Felicity raised the arrow with every intention of driving it into Slade, but at the last possible second, Slade tossed Laurel aside like a rag doll and caught Felicity as she launched herself at him arrow-first. His fist closed around Felicity's throat in a familiar turn of events._

_ "Dying has made you braver, I see," Slade said to her as he raised her to eye level. "What a shame it will be to have to bury you."_

_ With those words spoken, Slade threw Felicity off to the side and took off, leaving behind a rapidly beeping detonation device. Thea tried to run after Slade, and Felicity hadn't even had time to warn her before the device exploded and the whole world had gone dark._

. . .

Felicity coughed again, choking on the thick air that lingered in the ruins of Oliver's second lair. "Thea?" she croaked, her voice rough from the rubble she had inhaled. "Laurel? Roy?!" she called a little louder, pushing herself to her feet and ducking her head to avoid the low ceiling which groaned ominously.

She looked around the room carefully. Her heart soared with relief when she spotted a red street shoe poking out from a pile of broken drywall and splintered moulding. She heard a masculine cough, followed by a wheezing intake of breath and a "_what_ the_ hell_?".

"Roy?" Felicity called. "Roy?!" Felicity staggered over to the mass of fallen materials and began pulling the cracked sheets of chalky drywall away, until she could finally see Roy's dirt-smudged face. "Roy," she sighed reassuredly. Felicity grabbed his hand and began pulling him up.

Once he was on his feet, Roy attempted to dust himself off futilely. "What happened?" he asked, now much more alert.

"Slade Wilson," Felicity answered. "He found us after we brought you back here to heal. Oh yeah! You were also run through by a sword, so . . . there's that too . . ."

"I remember . . . kind of," Roy said. His back suddenly snapped ramrod straight as they heard the sound of choking coming from somewhere close by. Roy looked back to Felicity and said, "Thea."

"Here," Thea's voice rasped, followed by a shift in the layer of debris to Felicity's right.

Both Roy and Felicity rushed over to her, each taking one of her arms and helping her stand up. She looked to be, by far, the worst off out of the three. Bruises were forming and swelling along the right side of her forehead where she also had a nasty cut that had already bled quite a bit. She had a scrape across her left cheekbone and another on her chin. There was a trail of blood running from her nose and a cut that ran vertically through both her lips. Felicity wondered just how close Thea been to the explosion that had nearly brought down the lair on top of them.

"Are you alright?" she asked Thea, trying to dust some of the broken drywall from her light-brown hair and push it away from her battered face.

Thea coughed again. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay," she answered. "Just a little dizzy . . ." her words tapered off as she looked around the room. "Where are Laurel and Dr. Hamilton?"

Behind them, from somewhere near where the windows used to be, came the doctor's wheeze of, "I'm okay." Arms suddenly popped up out of the rubble, and the doctor pushed himself up. He straightened his remarkably undamaged spectacles and fixed his clothes which had been torn and ripped in places. "Nothing seems to be broken."

Thea's whole body tensed and she spun around in a frantic circle. "Laurel," she said. "Where's Laurel?"

Felicity too became panicked. "Laurel!" she yelled. The building groaned again and this time it shifted, dropping the ceiling a little lower than before. "Laurel!"

Hamilton looked around the structure. "This whole building is going to come down any second," he told them. "We need to get out of here."

"We can't leave without Laurel!" Felicity told him. "We're Team Arrow. No man – or woman – gets left behind."

The only response that came to Felicity's statement was the sound of a phone going off. As it rang, Roy, Thea, and Emil looked around the space, but Felicity just sighed. She took her phone out of her pocket, holding it up to show them before answering it.

"Oliver," she said, without even needing to look at the caller ID.

"Felicity, _where– are– you_?" he asked in his emphatic and grave tone of voice.

"Slade was here. He ambushed the lair. Again," she added wryly.

"Is everyone alright?"

"Roy, Dr. Hamilton, and I are fine. Thea's a little banged up and dizzy but she says she's okay. But Oliver, we don't know where Laurel is," Felicity explained, her voice cracking under the weight of trying to maintain composure in the face of her panic.

"I do," Oliver told her. "Slade has her."

An unwanted sob managed to slip past Felicity's lips despite her best defenses. "Oliver, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's my fault. I tried to stop him, I did. He was just so strong, and I couldn't," she cried.

"Felicity, listen to me: this isn't your fault," Oliver told her firmly. "We're outside the lair now, but the entrance is buried. We're trying to create a big enough opening for you to slip through."

"Oka–" Felicity stopped abruptly. Her gaze was caught by a small metallic object laying on the ground not too far away. She walked over and stooped to retrieve it, sniffling all the while. "Oliver, did you have explosive fletchettes in here?"

"Yeah," he answered, sounding like he was lifting something heavy. "Why?"

She looked over her shoulder at Roy, Thea, and Emil. One corner of Roy's mouth quirked up in a smile and he nodded to her. He held his hand out and Felicity gave him the miniature arrow.

"Oliver, stand back," she told him.

"Why?"

As Roy wound his arm back like an MLB pitcher, Felicity answered, "Because we're coming out."

Roy launched the mini arrow straight at the wall of broken concrete pieces and a second later the fletchette exploded. The impact was minimal, not enough to bring the rest of the building down, but enough to make a hole to slip through. Not a second after the dust had settled did Oliver's head appear in the frame of remaining rocks.

He looked at Roy. "Nice shot."

Roy stared wide-eyed at the gap between the fallen concrete as if he couldn't believe that he had created their way out. "Thanks."

Felicity took Thea's arm and led her over to the gap. "Thea goes first," she said.

As Thea stumbled toward the narrow gap, Oliver held his arms out to her. "I've got you, Speedy," he assured her.

"Be careful," Felicity warned as Oliver pulled Thea through the tight space by her hands. "Careful."

Once Thea made it through and was safe in the arms of her worried brother, the rest of them followed her out; Hamilton, Felicity, and then finally Roy, who Felicity turned to pull through once she was out of the destroyed lair. When they were finally all safe and clear of the building, Hamilton saw to the injured Thea and, after squeezing Felicity's hand in thanks, Roy followed to watch over them. Felicity took note of the lightening sky just before Sara rushed over to her with her arms outstretched. She opened her arms and Sara unexpectedly stepped into them and wrapped Felicity in a tight embrace. She felt Sara's hand cradling the back of her head to keep her close for longer than was probably necessary, but Felicity didn't mind a bit.

"You scared the hell out of me," Sara said quietly. "_Again_." Her hold on Felicity finally loosened and she backed away just enough to scan Felicity for any injuries. Her analysis didn't take long before she let out a gasp and stepped closer, touching Felicity's neck. "Oh my God, Felicity! What happened?"

"What do you mean?" Felicity asked, raising her hand to touch her own neck.

From her seat against the side of a nearby building, Thea explained, "You have nasty-looking bruises around your neck where Slade caught you by the throat when you tried to stab him." She frowned at Felicity and added, "That was really brave and stupid, you know."

"Well it seemed like a good idea at the time when Slade started moving Laurel out of the lair," Felicity defended. A second later, the realization dawned on her again and she dropped her head. "I had to do _something_. I _should_ have done more."

Sara's eyes continued to widen as she listened to the conversation between the other two women, and she finally turned to Felicity and exclaimed, "You took a run at Slade Wilson!? Are you insane!? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Felicity told her firmly, staring straight into Sara's eyes. "I'm fine. My ribs feel a little bruised and now I have a headache, but I'm fine." Sara looked unconvinced but she didn't push the envelope any more. Felicity became solemn and shamefaced. "I'm sorry, Sara. I tried to help Laurel, but I just . . ." she trailed off helplessly. "I'm so sorry."

"Hey, no. Stop," Sara told her, pulling Felicity into her arms again. "Come here."

They stood there holding onto one another until Oliver came over looking tired and grave. "The sky's getting lighter," he said. "We have to find Laurel and stop Slade before the sun comes up."

"I think I might know where Slade could be holding Laurel," Felicity told them. She felt Sara squeeze their joined hands. "I think he may have taken her back to the foundry. That's where this battle started–"

"–And it's where Slade wants to end it," Oliver finished her thought.

"We need a plan of attack," Felicity said.

"_No_," Sara interjected pointedly, causing her two friends to stare incredulously at her. "_We_" – she let go of Felicity's hand to gesture between herself and Oliver – "need a plan of attack. _You_ need rest." Sara set her hands, one of which was splinted at the wrist, on Felicity's shoulders and looked at her with care. "Felicity, you just _broke out of_ the hospital after being given a volatile healing accelerator to instantly recover from injuries inflicted from _being tortured_. You need to recuperate from all of this."

Felicity turned to Oliver momentarily, but she eyed Sara sideways. "Oliver, could you just give us a minute, please?"

Looking between the two blondes, Oliver evidently decided that he really didn't want to be in the middle of whatever this was shaping up to be. "Uh . . . _sure_," he answered. "I'll just be right over there." He pointed to Diggle and Lyla and slowly ambled away with hesitant steps.

Felicity went back to staring back at Sara in defiance. "What I _need_, Sara, is to find Laurel while she's still breathing," she said firmly. "I won't be able to rest until I know that all of my friends are safe again. I can recuperate when this is all said and done."

"And when exactly do you think this is all going to be 'said and done', Felicity?" Sara demanded, growing more frustrated every second she spent having her attempts to care for Felicity rebuffed by the woman. "First it's getting Laurel back, then it will be determining what to do with Slade since Oliver _obviously_ isn't going to kill him despite _everything_ Slade has done to all of us, and then we'll have to find a new headquarters, then the city will need to be rebuilt . . ." Sara trailed off, looking into Felicity's eyes as if pleading with her to understand that what she was trying to say came from a place of deep care and protectiveness. "There is no 'said and done' in this life, Felicity. Something will always pop up, usually at the most inopportune of times."  
Sara slid her hands down to join Felicity's as they looked at one another. "You're so selfless and giving, and you take so much upon yourself, Fliss," she said, raising her uninjured hand to sweep hair out of Felicity's soot-streaked face. "You're so good to everyone else that sometimes you forget to be good to yourself, but you can't do that."

"It's not a choice, Sara." Felicity's fingers closed around the hand that Sara had set on her face, and slowly lowered both their hands to their sides. "I am who I am, no matter what life I lead. And I may not have chosen this life, but this life chose me, and I have to honor that by living it the best way I know how– by never compromising who I am or going against what I believe is the right thing to do."

Sara continued looking at her for a moment, then her shoulders slumped in defeat. "I'm not going to win this argument, am I?" she asked knowingly.

"Not this time," Felicity told her, smiling apologetically. She squeezed Sara's hand once and then turned back to the rest of the gathering group. "We should find somewhere to come up with a plan. Four masked vigilantes, seven ninja assassins, and a quartet of A.R.G.U.S. inmates standing out in the open is going to attract attention." Felicity looked over her shoulder at the hovel that had been their secondary safe haven. "I'm pretty sure lair-number-two is what you would call compromised."

"Yeah," Oliver agreed. "But where?"

"The clock tower hasn't been found out, torn down, or blown up yet," Sara said. "At this point, it's about as safe a place as any."

"Then we need to move fast," Oliver said.

* * *

"**W**hen the foundry was damaged in the quake, we reconstructed it with two secondary passageways in and out," Felicity explained, while Digg was drawing a crude draft of the Arrowcave's floor plan.

Oliver, Sara, Diggle, Felicity, Roy, and Nyssa al Ghul had set up in the clock tower and gathered around the table where Diggle was drafting makeshift blueprints of the foundry. Lyla had taken the members of the Suicide Squad back to the A.R.G.U.S. convoy on the outskirts of the city upon Oliver's request and Digg's insistence that she go and try to buy them more time from Waller and her firepower. As soon as Sin had shown up, she had taken over Roy's place at Thea's side, so that Roy could join the war party while Hamilton assessed her injuries more thoroughly in the other room. No one but Nyssa really knew where the other League assassins had disappeared to, but they all knew that they weren't very far away.

"Obviously, the main route is the door at the back of Verdant's pantry," Diggle continued. He marked an 'x' where he had done a rough drawing of the club's pantry. "One of the secondary entry-and-escape points is a set of cellar doors out in the back alley that open up into a stairway, which runs through the network of pipes, and then leads to the high-rise platform. The other is through the abandoned service tunnels underneath the old steel mill where there's a ladder leading up to the floor grate directly inside the Arrowcave." He marked two more 'X's where the platform and floor grate were."

"The final way you can get in is through the ventilation shafts, which I wouldn't recommend unless you're small enough to move through them and graceful enough not to break something falling thirty feet onto hard concrete trying to get out of them," Felicity explained.

"Could Roy get through them?" Sara asked, sizing up the young man.

"Watch it!" Roy squawked indignantly.

Diggle smirked and rolled his eyes that the exchange. "No, he couldn't. No one any bigger than Thea or Sin could fit through that air vent," he answered.

"Thea is not joining us on this one," Oliver told them firmly.

"Neither is Sin," Sara agreed. "So the air shaft is out. That leaves the main entrance, the alleyway access and the floor grate."

"Oliver and Sara will go in through the main access," Felicity instructed. "Roy and Miss al Ghul will enter through the alleyway."

Diggle looked at Nyssa, "You can tell your guys to take the night off; six against one sounds fair enough to me." Nyssa nodded in acknowledgment, and Diggle continued, "When Lyla gets back, she and I will plan on coming up through the floor grate."

"If we can get him closer to the salmon ladder," Roy began, "we'll have him completely surrounded."

"But this plan also reveals all the ways into your headquarters," Nyssa pointed out. "Are you sure that's wise?"

Roy turned his head to look at the assassin. "It's no worse than revealing them to the 'daughter of Ra's al Ghul; Heir to The Demon'," he countered with an impassive tone, putting emphasis around Nyssa's title.

"This is true," Nyssa assented in a similarly neutral manner. She turned to regard Diggle and Felicity, "Your plan is as good as any other. When your wife returns, Mr. Diggle, we will begin." With this final statement, the war party began to disband.

After a few minutes, Sara caught Oliver staring across the room with a look of consternation on his face and she followed his gaze. He was watching Felicity as she sat down against the clock tower wall, looking as if her mind was a million miles away. Sara would have bet her entire final paycheck from Verdant that she knew what Felicity was spaced out about.

As Oliver made a move to approach Felicity, Sara held up a hand. "I'll talk to her," she said, leaving no room for argument.

Oliver nodded reluctantly and turned back to the others, and Sara went over to Felicity and lowered herself to the ground in front of her. Sara grabbed hold of the hands that Felicity had had resting in her lap and ducked her head to catch Felicity's blue gaze. Felicity blinked several times rapidly, as if she was trying to hold back tears again, but she finally met Sara's eyes.

"Hey," Sara said softly to her. "You wanna tell me what you're thinking?"

Felicity tried to swallow the lump in her throat. "This is my fault. I-I know Oliver said that it isn't, but . . . it is," she said, eyes flicking between Sara's eyes and their joined hands. "She's your sister, Sara. How could I have let this happen?"

"You didn't," Sara objected. She gave Felicity an earnest look. "From what Thea says, you put up one hell of a fight, Felicity." Sara paused in her methods when she saw that Felicity remained unmoved. "Look, you're right. Laurel is _my_ sister, and _I'm_ not blaming you." Her eyebrows furrowed in confused sympathy as she asked, "So why are _you_ blaming yourself?"

Felicity was quiet for a long time, and Sara waited patiently for her answer. Finally Felicity looked back into Sara's eyes and asked, "Do you know why I do what I do? The sidekick thing?"

"To help people?" Sara guessed. "Because it's the right thing to do? Because that's who you are?"

"Yes, to all of the above, but that's not the _real_ reason why I do this," Felicity told Sara. "I do it because someone has to save the heroes when they're too busy saving everyone but themselves; you, Oliver, Digg, and Roy. It's my job to take care of you and protect you."

Sara let Felicity's words and the meaningful way she was looking at Sara sink in. She wondered idly if Felicity had meant to leave that 'you' open to interpretation. She wondered if Felicity meant to make Sara feel like she was speaking specifically about her, whether Felicity intended to make Sara feel like they were talking about something deeper and more unspoken than Team Arrow.

"I used to think I was really good at that job," Felicity continued after a moment. "Then Oliver lost the company and Roy went on his mirakuru-rage-rampage and you left . . . again. And lately I've started wondering if I can even do this job at all. I got taken by Slade because I can't fight, and that makes me a liability. What if all I can do is make matters worse for everyone?"

"Listen to me," Sara cut in immediately with a stern tone. She leaned forward into Felicity so that their foreheads were almost touching, "you don't make things worse, Felicity. You _do_ make them _so_ much better. You're the only person who can get through to Ollie when he's tripping on his guilty conscience and his hero complex. You're the first person Roy looks to in a crisis because he knows that _you_ are going to be the one who figures out how to turn things around. You're Digg's closest confidant. And I . . . " – she looked straight into Felicity's eyes – "I wouldn't be here without you.  
"You're the only person who could have convinced me to come home, convinced me that this is where I belong. You saved me, Felicity. You saved me from myself, and that is something that no one else has ever been able to do." She gave Felicity a moment to think about that before she concluded, "Oliver may be the leader of this band of merry masks, but you're the one who holds us together. You're not just the brains of this operation– you're the heart. You're the one who reminds us why we fight and what we're fighting for, and you do it better than anyone else ever could."

Sara cradled Felicity's face in one hand and rubbed her thumb soothingly over the other girl's cheek, just as Oliver had done when Felicity had been shot by the Clock King while trying to protect Sara. Felicity was bravery and brains and beauty, all in one; she was everything. As Felicity closed her eyes and leaned into Sara's touch, Sara realized she was only just beginning to understand that her distracting infatuation for Felicity was becoming something else entirely. And even though those feelings terrified Sara more than all her nightmares of the past six hellish years combined, she was more afraid of letting it get away from her.

"You should get some rest," she told Felicity, still smoothing her thumb across the younger blonde's soft cheek. "I meant what I said about recuperating, Felicity. That serum healed your wounds hyper-fast but your body is weaker now because of it. Plus, maybe when you wake up, Slade will be dealt with and we can have that Chinese food and uninterrupted sleep-marathon."

Felicity looked back at her carefully. "Are you sure you should be going out there with your wrist in a brace?" she asked disapprovingly, staring at the injured hand.

"It's fine," she responded mechanically, as if she had been programmed to say it.

Giving Sara a skeptical look, Felicity argued, "It doesn't look fine, it looks swollen."

"I've fought before with worse injuries than this," Sara said, holding up her arm in gesture.

Felicity grimaced. "You know, strangely, that doesn't make me feel any better," she deadpanned.

Sara sighed and pushed a few unruly curls behind Felicity's ear. "I can't let Ollie face this alone. Slade may be primarily targeting him, but we're both to blame for turning Slade into what he is now, and now he has my sister. It's my fight just as much as it is Oliver's."

"Then _please,_ be careful," Felicity told her.

Sara wasn't sure if she could keep that promise if she made it, so she was a little relieved when Nyssa showed up at her side and looked down at the two of them.

"Agent Michaels has returned. It is time, _Ta-er al-Asfer_," Nyssa told her solemnly.

Sara nodded her acknowledgment and stood to leave, but she was stopped by a hand on her wrist and she turned back to find Felicity staring at her with grave eyes.

"Be. Careful," Felicity told her with the utmost seriousness.

Still unsure of what to say to that, Sara smiled and said, "You're always gonna be cute." She leaned in and kissed Felicity's cheek briefly, before turning to go.

This time, Felicity was too stunned to stop her again.


	7. Necessary

**A/N/: So here's the final chapter of the Slade story arc. After this it will just be kind of the aftermath of everything and maybe some fluff if you guys are up for it. Most of the next few chapters will be about Sara and Felicity getting closer and a few episode-like chapters where they have one bad guy that they take down by the end of it. **

**Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed or followed or favorited this story. Your support and constructive criticism has been so great and so supportive! I just think all of you are so awesome, so keep reading!**

* * *

–Necessary–

* * *

Less than an hour after the others had left for the final face-off with Slade in the Arrowcave, Felicity had fallen half-asleep when she was woken by someone shaking her.

"Felicity. Felicity!" Thea yelled to her, effectively startling the IT girl to consciousness.

Felicity sat bolt upright on the cot in the clocktower and looked in the direction of Thea and Sin, who had been monitoring the team's movements while she rested. Out of habit, Felicity reached for her glasses, before realizing that she had tossed them aside out of frustration when the secondary lair fell in. The blurry shape that Felicity recognized as Thea stood up and came over to Felicity.

"Here," she said, reaching forward and placing a pair of glasses on Felicity's face. They weren't her prescription glasses, but they helped clear things up a little at least.

When things were clearer, Felicity looked around and saw that Thea and Sin had routers, various tablets, smartphones, and laptops, and a global positioning system set up on the floor of the tower. Sin was sitting cross-legged in front of Felicity's borrowed tablet, staring anxiously from the screen to Felicity and Thea, and then back again. Felicity looked to Thea and saw the same scared and uneasy look on the younger Queen's face as well.

"What?!" Felicity asked carefully. "What did I miss?"

"No one is answering back over the comms," Sin explained, turning the screen that held Oliver, Sara, Roy, Diggle, and Lyla's voiceprints, which were all now straight lines reflecting the radio silence.

Felicity dropped to the ground next to Sin, grabbed her laptop and pulled up her GPS location software. "How long ago did they go silent?" Felicity asked.

"We heard Sara confirm that Laurel was there, then we heard Slade. They started fighting him, but after that, their comms went dead," Sin explained.

"Roy didn't even make a sound before his went quiet," Thea said. "Diggle started telling us that we had 'soldiers down', and after that, his and Lyla's comms went offline too."

Felicity nodded to show that she heard their words, but she was too focused on trying to locate the team's trackers and get the comms back online to form a verbal response. She knew for certain that Sara's insole-trackers were fully functional, the locator chip in John's wristwatch was online, and, if Oliver hadn't already found and disabled it, the one hidden in the bottom of his quiver should work as well. The GPS locked onto the three queries and showed that none of them had left the foundry.

"Where are you going?" Thea asked as Felicity stood up.

She turned back to Thea who, Felicity noticed for the first time, looked scared and unsure. "I'm going to the foundry," she answered slowly. "Well, first I'm going to my apartment to get my contacts, _then_ I'm going to the foundry."

"You _cannot_ be serious," Dr. Hamilton exclaimed, ripping back the curtain of his makeshift examination room and glaring at her. "What is it you're planning on doing?"

Felicity looked at him with a fire in her eyes. "Whatever is necessary to save the people I love." Emil opened his mouth to argue, but Felicity hardened her stare in what she hoped was a steadfast expression. "It's _my_ team, _my_ responsibility, _my _family, and_ my_ life," she said, "so I'm going."

"But seriously, though! What are you gonna do once you get there?" Sin questioned. "I mean, this guy is crazy strong and you've already been put through his evil wringer too many times. I'm just saying." She held her hands up in her own defense.

Hamilton sighed. "You can't go alone," he said.

"She won't." Thea stood gracefully to her feet. She held up a hand for the others to be quiet. "You called them your family," she said slowly to Felicity. "Well, they're _my_ family too. Oliver is all the family I have left in this world, and I'll be damned if I'm going to lose him too." She looked into Felicity's eyes with a plea for understanding. "You told me to stay in Starling, you told me Ollie needed me, you told me that I could be a hero if I chose to be one. So let's _do this_, Felicity. Together. You and me and anyone else who's willing to fight with us. Let's end Slade Wilson, once and for all."

"YEAH!" Sin cheered, jumping up from the floor and thrusting her hand into the air. Everyone simply stared at her, and the tips of her ears turned red when she noticed. "Sorry, motivational speeches really get me fired up."

Felicity smiled affectionately at Sin, and then at Thea. She finally rolled her eyes in defeat and muttered, "Oliver is going to kill me."

"Nah," Thea said, slinging an arm over Felicity's shoulder as they made their way toward the exit, "he'll only kill you if we don't die trying to save him first."

"That's reassuring," Felicity deadpanned.

Dr. Hamilton watched Sin trailed after Felicity and Thea as they left to probably get themselves killed. "No one listens to me," he grumbled to himself as he turned back to clean up his supplies.

* * *

When the three girls had stepped out of the clocktower, it was already apparent that there would be no sunrise that day. The sky was nearly as dark as night and rain poured down from thick, black rainclouds that flickered with lightning in between the claps of thunder. Even in the dim light, as they drove Diggle's black utility van through the city en route to Felicity's apartment, they could see the damage that had been done to the city over the past few nights, especially this last one.

"It's like a freaking zombie apocalypse," Sin commented.

"It sort of is," Thea replied, catching sight of what used to be her family's company. "Look at the QC building."

Felicity couldn't look. She couldn't look because she was sure that as soon as she saw the ruins of Queen Consolidated, she would lose a part of herself that she could never get back. Her entire life, up until Oliver Queen had shown up bleeding out in her backseat, had been her job on the ninth floor of that building. To see it in ruins now would ruin her. Working for Queen Consolidated had given her so much; it had brought Oliver to her, and, by extension, Digg, then Roy and Thea and Sin and Detective Lance and Laurel . . . and Sara. All the people she loved most in the world.

"I just need to grab a couple of things," Felicity told Thea and Sin as they walked into her apartment, "but you girls can make yourselves at home for a moment."

Felicity went right into her room and over to her closet to pull out the clothes she had worn during their mission of bombing Queen Consolidated's Applied Sciences building, sans the ski mask. She knew she should have disposed of the evidence and thrown them away after the mission, but she kept them as a sort of reminder to herself that she could run with Oliver and Digg and Sara if she wanted to. Plus, they were sort of the only mission-appropriate clothes she owned.

Thea and Sin came into her room just as she was pulling on the boots and her leather jacket.

"You look like a character from _Mission Impossible_," Thea said with a grin that reminded Felicity of Oliver. "Which, you know, is sort of appropriate, given the circumstances." She held out her hand to Felicity with something in it. "Here. We hope you don't mind, we grabbed your contacts from your bathroom."

Felicity took the case from Thea and carefully put her contacts in. "Thanks," she told them.

As she put the contacts in, she realized the irony of it all; when everyone else went out to save the day, they put masks over their eyes to hide their identities, but Felicity was taking her glasses off her eyes, and she felt as if doing so sort of hid her own. She blinked rapidly a few times to get adjusted to the sensation of the lenses on her eyes, but she could see much better now than she could before, and she felt a little safer because of it.

"So are we, like, going to hold up an archery store on the way, or . . ?" Sin asked after a too long silence.

"Not necessary," Felicity told her, walking over to a large wooden trunk at the foot of her bed.

She lifted the lid up and heard Thea and Sin's simultaneous gasp. Felicity had to admit, it was probably the last thing they expected; after all, what mild-mannered IT-girl had a trunk full of weaponry stowed in her bedroom? The girls were speechless for several more moments.

"You have a chest full of various weapons in your bedroom?" Thea asked incredulously.

"Kinky," Sin muttered, just loud enough to be barely audible.

Felicity lifted a red bow and quiver of arrows from the trunk and held the bow up. "Technically, _Roy_ has a chest full of various weapons in my bedroom," Felicity corrected. Realization dawned on her and she closed her eyes, "That came out _so_ wrong." She looked at Thea and explained, "It's Roy's arsenal. He hasn't told Oliver yet, but he's been training with different weapons. Roy didn't feel safe keeping them at his place in The Glades and he couldn't keep them in the foundry for obvious reasons, so he asked me to take them for safekeeping."

"Well . . ." Thea began slowly, "I guess I can't be mad at him, since it's kind of our one saving grace right now. What's in this thing?"

Felicity rummaged through the chest of weapons. "Umm . . . bow . . another bow . . countless arrows . . throwing knives . . . stun gun . . . sword . . ."

"Hand me one of the bows," Thea said. "And give Sin the stun gun, it might be the safest option."

"Hey!" Sin said indignantly. Both Felicity and Thea gave her looks and she slumped in defeat. "Okay, yeah. Fine."

Just as the girls were getting packed up to go, Felicity's cell-phone rang. She took it out of her jacket pocket and looked at the caller ID with a frown. As much as she didn't want to have this conversation right now, she knew she had to, so she took the call.

"Hi, Detective Lance."

* * *

Sara was pretty sure she had never been this pissed off in her entire life, and that was saying something considering she had grown up in constant competition with her perfect older sister. Ironically, her sister was the reason she was pissed off now too, only now it wasn't _at_ Laurel, but at the man who was threatening Laurel's life.

She should have known as soon as her comm started glitching that they had walked into a trap, but without any means of communication with the others, Sara hadn't been able to call them off or warn them. All that she and Oliver had been able to do was to fight Slade the best they could, but Slade knew their fighting styles and all of their tricks and, when the assassins showed up on the platform, Slade had known all of theirs as well. Three of Nyssa's men had been shot and fallen from the steel balcony before they could even raise their bows.

Thankfully, Nyssa – being who she was – realized quickly what was happening and shouted for the rest of her men to stay back in Arabic. Nyssa herself had leaped over the railing and landed cat-like on her feet on the concrete floor, distracting Slade long enough for Diggle and Lyla to come up through the grate. Nyssa fought relentlessly, dodging every swipe of Slade's sword and parrying with her dagger like the pro that she was. Digg had announced over the comms that they had wounded men, and he and Lyla had rushed to the fallen assassins to check for signs of life and to pull them out of harm's way when they realized that all three were still miraculously breathing.

After that, everything became fuzzy and abstract. Everything except for the sharp pain she had felt as Slade had slammed her head-first to the concrete floor. She had been oblivious until a few minutes ago, when she woke to find her arms tied behind her back with abrasive rope.

"Laurel," she muttered, using only the muscles of her stomach to pull herself to a sitting position.

"Are you alright?" Nyssa asked from beside her.

"Where's Laurel?" Sara asked stubbornly.

Sara turned her head to find Nyssa's face full of the rare worry that she seemed to reserve only for the Canary. She turned her head more, trying to spot Laurel, but the motion made her feel dizzy and nauseous, so she rested her forehead against Nyssa's available shoulder. Sara waited until the world stopped spinning before she lifted it again.

"What happened?" she asked softly, looking around the foundry to find all the others in the same position as her and Slade pacing the floor in front of them. She could see Laurel in front of her, but too far for her to reach.

"You were knocked unconscious," Nyssa explained. She cut her eyes in Slade's direction. "That . . . _man_ – if you'd like to call him that – threw you to the floor. You hit your head. It is a miracle that your neck wasn't broken from the impact."

"Are _you_ okay?" Sara asked Nyssa, turning back to look at her.

The assassin shifted her gaze back to Sara, and she smiled in a way that Sara hadn't seen in a long time. "Aside from my pride being mortally wounded, I am fine," Nyssa answered. "Are you concerned for me, _Ta-er al-Asfer_?"

"Of course I am," Sara answered.

How could Nyssa ever think otherwise? Nyssa had practically brought her back from the dead more than once, had been the only love Sara felt for four long years, had fought by her side when trouble arose, and had whispered away her nightmares when they consumed her in the darkness.

"I always will be," the blonde added, looking at Nyssa meaningfully. In that moment, Sara swore she saw a look of understanding and acceptance flicker in Nyssa's dark eyes.

"How touching," the loud voice of Slade interrupted suddenly. When Sara looked to him, he glared back at her with resentment. "For a moment there, Sara, you made it look as though you care for someone other than yourself. But that's not possible for you, now is it?"

Sara glared back, her face turning hard and murderous. "You don't know anything about me," she spat.

"I know you boarded a ship with your sister's boyfriend without any thought to the consequences of your actions," Slade countered cunningly. "Betraying your sister, and for what?" Slade suddenly shot forward and grabbed Laurel by her hair, clenching it in his fist. "You had to have known that she was always the one he truly loved."

"Laurel!" she screamed futilely.

He turned his attentions toward Laurel and Sara felt bile rise in her throat at the look of terror on Laurel's tear-streaked but still defiant face. "You know, the kid had a photograph of you while we were on that island. He looked at it every day," Slade told her conversationally, still holding Laurel by her hair. He shoved her down onto the concrete floor. "Oliver's one true love," he sneered apathetically, "and the sister of the woman who traded Shado's life for her own." He lowered his sword point to the back of Laurel's neck.

"NO!" Oliver screamed, just as he had screamed at Ivo that night on the island.

"Slade, stop! Stop!" Sara cried desperately, and it did cause Slade a moment of pause. "You want to right a wrong? An eye for an eye? You want Oliver to know despair?" she questioned. "Then take me. Kill _me_!"

"Sara, no no," Laurel sobbed. "No, no, no no . . ."

"What are you doing, _al–Asfer_?" Nyssa demanded in a panicked voice.

"Sara, don't!" Oliver told her.

Sara's attention remained fixed on the man in front of her, her pale green eyes met Slade's steel glare without fear. "Let Oliver live the rest of his life knowing that he let Shado die for nothing. I'm the one you want. I'm the one who is alive because Shado isn't. Take my life. Kill me, the way I should have been killed instead of Shado," she offered.

Slade stepped away from Laurel, who continued to shriek and cry 'no', as he pressed his blade to her sister's neck. Sara raised her chin to avoid the sharpness of the steel, but it only served to force her to look directly into the darkness of Slade's eyes. She saw nothing there, and though it didn't surprise her, it still startled her.

"If only you had been this noble back then," Slade spoke softly. "You live because Shado died, and what an insult your life has been to her sacrifice. You've only served to become an even more thoughtless, cold-blooded killer. You don't deserve the life she gave for you. Tonight, you will follow her in death."

Slade raised his sword swiftly, letting out an anguished bellow. Sara ducked her head, waiting for the blade to drop and for it all to end.

"Not tonight she won't," Felicity's voice declared, causing every one of their heads to whip around to look at her, including Slade.

Felicity had a bow in her hands with an arrow drawn back and ready to fire. Her glasses were gone, replaced by a steely look in her eyes that none of her friends had ever seen before.

"Felicity, no!"

"_You_," Slade growled in anger, suddenly pulling a gun from the holder at his hip and pointing it at Felicity, "are proving maddeningly hard to kill, Miss Smoak. How is that possible for a woman of your weak stature?"

"You know, they say that love is the strongest emotion," Felicity said conversationally, never taking her eyes off of Slade, "and that that also makes it the most dangerous." She paused calculatingly, before continuing on. "Well, Mr. Wilson, right now you have everyone I love at your mercy, and that has made me _very_ dangerous; because you're right, I'm not a fighter like all the others." She looked at Slade with a wild quirk of her brow and told him, "All the strength I have comes from my heart."

"Well then, I guess we'll have to put an end to that 'heart'," Slade crooned contemptuously.

Several things happened at once, but all of them seemed to happen as if in slow motion. Slade fired his gun twice. Felicity let go of the arrow in her bow. The arrow cut directly through Slade's throat; he never even tried to defend himself, simply assuming that Felicity would miss. His bullets hit Felicity's chest in rapid succession and she was knocked backwards to the ground from the force of it. Then there was the sound of steel as Slade's sword clattered to the concrete while Slade dropped to his knees, making a gurgling sound and sputtering blood as the mirakuru cure spread through his system and blood filled his throat. After that, the world seemed to snap back to full speed, leaving only a ringing in Sara's ears.

"FELICITY!" Oliver, Sara, and Digg screamed at the same time. Roy would have cried out too, if his heart in his throat had allowed it.

Behind Felicity, Sara could see her father stepping carefully into the room with his gun held out and he dropped to his knees as soon as he saw Felicity's prone form on the floor. With a clatter of footsteps on the grated iron high-rise, Thea appeared with her bowstring drawn back and Sin beside her with a stun gun.

Oliver was finally able to work his way through the ropes that bound him and he turned to untie Laurel next. As soon as he was on his feet, Sara cried out, "Ollie!" to get him to untie her as well. They ran over and dropped to their knees on the other side of Felicity, as Thea and Sin appeared on the sublevel and began cutting everyone else free.

"Felicity? Felicity!" Oliver yelled, staring at Felicity.

He had tears in his eyes and Sara's were already rolling down her cheeks as she held Felicity's hand in her own. Sara's crying stopped quickly when she felt Felicity squeeze her hand, and she held her breath.

"Felicity?" she asked softly.

Felicity came to with a wheezing cough and a groaned "_Ow_. Okay, yeah, that hurt."

All Sara could think was, _what the hell just happened?_

. . .

_"You know just as well as I do that I don't like this plan," Detective Lance said as he and Felicity stood at the back of his cruiser with the trunk open. He looked over his shoulder at Sin and Thea, who were talking idly to each other a short distance away. "They're just kids, and you're not that much older, Miss Smoak."_

_ "Felicity."_

_ "I'm sorry?" the detective questioned._

_ Felicity looked up to Detective Lance. "You should call me Felicity," she told him. "If you're going to help me do what's necessary to save the people we _both_ love, detective, then you should call me Felicity."_

_ Lance's gruff exterior seemed to melt away at the request, as if he was seeing a brave and capable woman where he had once seen an impressionable young accomplice of the Starling City vigilante. He wondered how often it was that this woman's guidance led The Arrow to save the city. From the look in her eyes, he could tell that she couldn't be talked out of this._

_ He reached into the trunk, pulled out a box, and handed it to Felicity. "Since you're _clearly_ going to do this with or without me," he said as Felicity opened the flaps and looked inside, "you should probably wear that, _Felicity_."_

_ "Thank you, sir," she told him. She took out the vest that had been in the box and put it on under her dark shirt and leather jacket._

_ "Don't mention it," Lance said, closing the trunk. He looked at her more earnestly, "I'm serious about that. Don't mention it to anybody."_

. . .

Detective Lance offered out his hand and pulled Felicity to her feet. As she stood, the two flattened bullets fell to the ground harmlessly, and everyone looked at Felicity. The IT-girl shrugged.

"Kevlar," she explained simply.

"Oh, thank God!" Oliver laughed as he wrapped Felicity up in a tight hug that caused her to wince.

"Ow! Oliver, _oww!_" she reminded him pointedly. "Just because being shot didn't kill me, doesn't mean it didn't hurt."

"Dad!" Laurel yelled, throwing her arms around her father's neck.

"Laurel! It's okay, sweetie" he reassured his eldest daughter. "You're going to be okay now." He wrapped her up in his arms, satisfied that she was safe. He held one of his arms out to Sara as well, and she stepped into him.

"I'm okay too, Dad. I promise," Sara told him, laughing to release some of the tension that had filled her body. She squeezed her father and kissed her sister's head before turning back to the group.

"You made that shot perfectly," Sara said to Felicity in astonishment

Felicity nodded tightly. "I wasn't training for nothing." She looked over Sara's shoulder to where Mr. Lance was still hugging his eldest daughter. "Detective," she said, garnering his attention. "Those reinforced handcuffs and the super healer."

"Right," Lance said.

He turned and snapped a pair of titanium-enforced shackles around Slade's wrists and then took out the arrow that Felicity had shot into his throat. Lance set it aside for the time being and Sin quickly handed him a shot of the hyper-healing drug that had saved Felicity and Roy's lives. The detective sat back on his heels once all was done, and looked at Felicity with a simple nod.

"Looks like no one's gonna die tonight," Lance remarked. "You did good, Felicity."

Felicity blushed at the praise. She never had been good at taking compliments. "I was just doing what was necessary," she answered.

"We'll turn him over to Waller," Oliver said, coming to stand over Slade's recovering body. He looked up at Lance, "If it's alright with you, detective."

"Hey, the less I have to see of this guy the better," Quentin returned, holding his hands up in surrender. He looked more closely at Oliver for a minute. "So you're really him, huh? 'The Arrow'."

"I'm the man under the hood," Oliver replied. "'The Arrow' is just what people call me when I'm wearing it."

Quentin looked at the group of heroes. "The Arrow," – he looked from Oliver to his youngest daughter – "The Canary," – he turned to Nyssa – "Heir to The Demon," – Lance looked at Roy – "and what do they call you, Red Rocket?"

"Arsenal," Thea answered for her boyfriend, giving him a 'yeah, I know' sort of look. "Emphasis on the 'arse' sometimes."

"And she's Speedy," Laurel told her father, looking at Thea who beamed in response. "Then there's Agent Michaels of A.R.G.U.S. and John "Digg" Diggle." Laurel looked to Felicity, "And Felicity Smoak: Hero of the Hour."

"_One Time_ Hero of the Hour," Felicity told her pointedly. "Don't go getting any ideas, counselor."

With a smile, Detective Lance jokingly asked, "So what are you called when you're all together?"

Felicity, Digg, Roy, Sara, and Thea turned their heads to regard Oliver with coaxing smiles on their faces. For a minute, Oliver looked begrudging, but under the heat of five strong stares, he finally gave in and answered, "We're Team Arrow."


	8. Something

–Something–

* * *

Sara waited as long as she could stand after they handed Slade off to Waller.

She saw Nyssa and her men off at the docks, and when Nyssa had told her that she would be back again, all Sara had said was, "I know." She had kissed Nyssa's cheek before she had turned and left, accepting that she would see her former-lover again. It was just a question of when.

She stopped by the precinct to see her father and talk to him about the citizens of Starling City and what she could do to help.  
"_There's not much you can do now, sweetie,_" her father had told her. "_Let us take it from here, okay? The SCPD can handle this one."  
"Dad, the Mayor, the DA, __**and**__ the Chief of Police are all dead, that's going to cause city-wide chaos,"_ she had told him.  
_"We're figuring it out. It's gonna be okay,"_ he had assured her, kissing her on her forehead before he had been called away again.

She had called Oliver to see how and what everyone was doing. He told her that he and Thea and Roy were getting out of town for awhile; as were Diggle and Lyla, although separately from the Queens. Laurel was doing better, and she was at the DA's office trying to do damage control. Sin was laying low at the clocktower. Felicity was probably back at the foundry already.

So Sara headed over to the foundry, unable to stay away anymore. It was as much time and space as she could give Felicity to process everything without knowing if she was really okay. It was nearly dark once again when she arrived at the old steel mill, and it seemed odd not seeing the lights and patrons of Verdant or hearing the pounding club music. Of course, it had seemed strange the first time she had come, but now she was able to focus on more than just not letting Slade kill her.

He almost did.

He would have, if it hadn't been for Felicity.

When she walked down the foundry steps, the lights were all low and Felicity's silhouette was simply sitting on the steel table. Sara turned on the lights but Felicity still didn't move, too lost in her own thoughts to register Sara's presence or the sudden new brightness of the room. It worried Sara that Felicity wasn't more on-guard, but she supposed now wouldn't be the time to bring it up. Felicity could brood in her state of oblivion if she wanted to, but Sara felt inclined to at least let her know that she was here.

"Hey," Sara said softly, coming up to Felicity and running a hand across her back as she circled around to face her.

"Hi," Felicity said, sounding not unpleasantly surprised. "You're still here."

Sara laughed lightly. "Was I not supposed to be?" she asked.

Felicity's face scrunched up in what Sara thought was an impossibly adorable expression. "No, no! It's just . . . the League and Nyssa and . . ." Felicity trailed off, but she reached forward and took Sara's hand.

"Nyssa and her men came here of their own free will," Sara said. "They arrived in Starling before I even got the chance to call them. I saw them off at the docks this morning." Felicity looked too relieved and Sara felt obligated to warn her, "They will be back for me though. I owed a debt to Ra's al Ghul before I ever set foot back in Starling City, and now I owe Nyssa a debt as well, for saving you from Slade and for coming here when we desperately needed help."

Felicity suddenly looked a lot less at ease. "Will they make you rejoin?"

Sara thought about it for a moment before answering, "Nothing could make me rejoin the League. I think Nyssa knows that, and if she knows it, then so does her father. I've been released from my allegiance to the League of Assassins; short of assassinating _me_, there's nothing Ra's or Nyssa can do."

"That's a pretty big 'short of', Sara," Felicity snapped without meaning to.

"But they won't," Sara assured her. "Especially once I pay my debts to the al Ghul family. The League of Assassins live by a strict code of honor. To kill me without cause when I've been released by Nyssa and paid my debts would be to break that code."

Felicity was quiet for awhile. She nodded her head thoughtfully before looking up to Sara again. "But you'll have to go back eventually," she said with a hint of something in her voice that Sara couldn't quite put a name to.

"But not right now," Sara told her, "and not forever."

Felicity nodded again and, after a moment of silence, asked, "Um, would it be okay if I . . . you know, hugged you now?"

Sara's face split into an enormous smile. "Yeah, I think I'd be okay with that," she replied amusedly.

When Felicity stepped into her arms, Sara wrapped her up tight. She hadn't hugged many people since she'd been back: her father, her mom, Laurel, Sin, and Ollie. Hugging Felicity felt different. Sara thought it was a pretty great kind of different, and she hugged Felicity a little tighter, until she heard Felicity wince and she remembered that the girl had been shot less than twenty-four hours ago.

"Sorry," she said, quickly letting go of the IT-girl. "I'm sorry. Are you okay?"

Felicity put a hand on her chest. "Ah," she hissed. "Yeah. I'm fine."

Sara quirked an unimpressed eyebrow at her. "Really? You're going to play the 'tough girl' card now?" she deadpanned with just the lightest touch of amusement in her voice. "I'm calling your bluff, Smoak. Let's take a look."

"Really, Sara. It's fine," Felicity assured her, even as Sara reached forward and began unbuttoning Felicity's shirt. Felicity flushed bright scarlet, and not entirely out of embarrassment; her skin felt hot wherever Sara's skin accidently brushed even lightly against hers.

Sara undid the last button and pushed the light fabric off Felicity's shoulders. She took one look at the angry black-and-blue welts on Felicity's chest and sighed. "Yeesh! You really _were_ down-playing it, weren't you?" Sara remarked knowingly.

"I bruise easily. It's not as bad as it looks," the other girl argued with a roll of her eyes.

The ex-assassin looked Felicity straight in the eyes and ordered, "Tell the truth."

That seemed to be all it took to get Felicity to confess. "Fine. It hurts, okay? I think it might hurt even worse than the time I was _actually_ shot."

Chuckling to herself, Sara told her, "That's because you were doped up on those 'aspirins' Digg gave you."

Felicity tipped her head back and groaned toward the ceiling. "I wonder if he has any more," she mused.

Sara laughed as she ran her fingers from the soft, creamy skin of Felicity's unharmed chest to the hard, dark bruise. Felicity gasped a little when Sara touched the impacted area, but she did her best not to make it noticeable. Sara had to hand it to her, Felicity handled pain pretty well for someone who didn't experience it all that often.

"Does it hurt all the time?" Sara asked.

The corners of Felicity's mouth quirked upwards. "Only when I breathe," she answered flippantly.

Sara laughed and rolled her eyes at her friend, before beginning to button up Felicity's shirt again. "Felicity Smoak, you really are something else," she told her, squeezing Felicity's hand when all the buttons were done up.

Felicity jumped down from the table, putting the two eye-to-eye once more. She winced again but composed herself quickly. Her hand touched Sara's cheek and their eyes met as Felicity murmured, "So are you."

* * *

The next few days passed by in a blur. Everywhere Felicity went, there were city workers out cleaning up the mess that Slade and his men had caused. By the next week, Starling was starting to look a little less like a tornado-torn town and a little more like its usual self. The police had squashed any riots that began brewing before they got out of control, keeping everyone calm under the supervision of interim Chief of Police Quentin Lance. Laurel was busy answering the demands that came with temporarily overseeing the District Attorney's office, and Sara was keeping the streets clean and trying to round up all of Slade's recently 'de-mirakuru-ed' convict soldiers by night. She spent her days with Felicity, sometimes joined by Sin, trying to fix up the damages done to the abandoned foundry; with Isabel Rochev dead and most of Queen Consolidated's shareholders scattered across the globe trying to save face from electing a super villainess as their CEO, no one was around to have any say about an old out-of-commission steel factory.

Oliver called Felicity frequently to check in on everyone. He, Thea, and Roy had found themselves in Gotham City, though he wouldn't say much more about what they were doing there. Felicity had a sneaking suspicion that she could guess anyway. There had been stories going back years of a bat-like costumed man putting lunatic criminals in Arkham Asylum like billionaire Bruce Wayne of Wayne Enterprises put money in the bank. But Felicity didn't press Oliver. It was probably better if she didn't know.

Digg had called yesterday to reassure Felicity that he and Lyla were both fine, just in need of a little vacation. He teased that he had a lot of big news to tell them all when he got back, but he wouldn't say when and he wouldn't give her a hint as to what the 'big news' was. It was frustrating and she knew that he knew that.

Felicity had to admit, as much as her boys sometimes drove her crazy, she missed them. Despite their war-torn city, things felt boring without Digg calling to tell her they needed her to research something or Oliver stumbling into the lair with a bullet somewhere in him or Roy getting mad and punching an appendage off one of the practice dummies. Having Sara still with her was Felicity's only saving grace.

* * *

It was late when she got home that night, and she was still nowhere near done working. Chief Lance had asked her to do some 'computer-tech-stuff' for some of the local precincts that were trying to track down Slade's former-acolytes. It was really the least she could do, since he had sort of saved her life with the bulletproof vest. She didn't mention a word to him about the many generous donations that the Starling City relief fund had been mysteriously receiving from its wealthy citizens, all of whom just happened to be names in Robert Queen's little black book. He didn't ask, so she didn't tell him what she did in her down time. They worked together on a strictly need-to-know basis, and that worked just fine for the both of them.

No sooner had Felicity walked through her door when her phone rang. She checked the screen to see none other than Sara's name and face displayed across it. Kicking her door closed behind her with her foot, Felicity couldn't help the smile on her face as she set her bags down and quickly answered the call before it went to voicemail.

"This has better be a personal call, Lance," she told Sara playfully.

"Very funny," Sara deadpanned. "Whatever happened to a nice 'hey, Sara! I was just thinking about you' for a greeting?"

"Hi, Sara! I was just thinking about you," Felicity repeated with amusement. Lightning flashed in the sky as thunder literally rocked the ground, and Felicity worriedly added, "If you're still out on your nightly prowl, I'd get inside in a hurry. The storm's coming."

Sara laughed at her and Felicity decided it was the best sound she had heard in a month.

"Are you home?" Sara asked.

Pressing her phone between her ear and shoulder blade, Felicity began making herself tea. "Yeah. Just got in. Why?"

Felicity was suddenly on high-alert when she heard her bedroom window slide open and a set of footsteps coming in off the fire escape. "Because the sound you probably just heard was me," Sara told her, stepping forth from Felicity's bedroom and ending the call as they could now speak to each other face to face. Sara was still wearing her Canary suit from her nightly patrol of the city, but she was dripping went from being caught out in the rain. "Storm's already here, by the way."

With a light chuckle and an amused shaking of her head, Felicity ducked into her bathroom for a moment to grab a couple towels, then she went back to Sara. "I guess so," she laughed, throwing a towel over Sara's shoulders and bundling her up. Felicity took the wig off and began drying Sara's natural hair, leaving the towel on the other woman's head when she went to remove the mask.

It felt like a blessing and a curse to be able to look into Sara's blue eyes, so filled with humor and so incredibly clear and warm. It was all Felicity could do not to get lost in them. Little did she realize that Sara had already gotten lost in hers. The Canary reached a hand up to tuck a loose curl behind Felicity's ear, not realizing that her hands were cold until Felicity took them both and pressed them to her neck to warm them.

"How long were you out there in this storm?" Felicity questioned, worry tainting her every syllable and making clear just how concerned she was. "You're freezing. I should probably get you out of your clothes." Felicity stopped and made a face as she heard her own words, "I mean, we_– _I mean, _you. You_ should probably change clothes. And take a hot shower. Not that you–" Halting in her attempts to save face, Felicity finished with, "You know what? I'm going to stop talking now. You're staying here tonight. That is, if you want to. But you don't have to! I mean, I not going to force you to–"

Felicity stopped suddenly again and turned on her heel.

"Hey Felicity!" Sara called after her. The girl stopped and looked over her shoulder at Sara, who beamed and told her, "Thanks. You're still cute."

. . .

When Sara stepped out of the shower, she turned toward the foggy mirror and smoothed her hand in a circle across its surface to clear it. She looked at her reflection and, for once, she didn't immediately look away. Her eyes were a clear steel-blue and an unwitting smile had been tugging at the corners of her mouth. For the first time in years, she didn't see a cold-blooded killer who had just finished washing the blood off her hands; Sara saw the faint glimmer of someone else, someone entirely new to her. She was neither the petty and selfish young girl from her early life nor the single-minded and expedient survivor she had become since then. This time Sara was choosing her own fate.

Her mind told her not to get too used to that, knowing that anything could happen at any moment and that sooner or later the League of Assassins would come to collect on the debts she owed to them. Her heart, however, was a completely different story; her heart had hope. She was surrounded by people she trusted – her friends and her family – and she knew that she was safe with them. She would worry about Ra's and Nyssa when the time came. _One thing at a time_, was what her father had always told her.

It was as if _someone_ had dived deep into the darkness inside Sara and found that final faint glimmer of light that still existed in those dark recesses and dragged it to the surface.

Sara smiled at her reflection a final time and then she ducked out of the bathroom and into Felicity's room next door. Felicity was laying stomach-down on her bed with her laptop open in front of her and her glasses slightly askew. She looked up when she sensed Sara come into the room, and a sweet blush flourished across her cheeks and down her neck.

Sara thought it was perfectly adorable that after all the times she had stripped out of her clothes to don her Canary suit in the middle of the lair, Felicity was still shy and polite and turned her eyes away after scanning Sara's body when she thought Sara hadn't noticed yet. "_Sorry, I didn't mean to– You're just . . . Abs– And just . . . Wow!"_ Felicity had rambled, when Sara had caught her one day. Sara had just given her a cheeky grin and a wink in response, which had only served to make Felicity turn an even deeper shade of crimson. Sometimes it was fun to mess with Felicity, but other times all Sara wanted was to tell her that she _liked_ when Felicity stared. She wondered if Felicity suspected that already, and was just too shy and polite to ask about it.

"I'll step out so you can get dressed. You can borrow anything you want out of my closet or the dresser," Felicity offered, and before Sara could even tell her that it was fine that she stayed, Felicity was out with the door closed behind her.

Sara sighed. She could seduce strapping EMTs, entice handsome billionaire playboys, and even make lethally sexy assassin heirs fall in love with her. So what was it going to take to catch the eye of a painfully gorgeous IT-girl with an innate ability to see the best in people?

. . .

After awhile of Felicity sitting cross-legged on her couch typing on her computer, she heard her bedroom door open and looked up to find Sara standing in the doorway. The older girl was wearing Felicity's old, well-worn, heather gray MIT t-shirt, along with a wild smile and not much else. Sara gracefully threw herself over the arm of the couch and sat down at the end opposite Felicity. She perked her head up as if she was trying to peer over Felicity's laptop screen.

"You look hard at work on something," she commented. Pushing her foot playfully against Felicity's, she asked, "What is it?"

"Software," Felicity answered. "My own software. I've been writing it since I was sixteen, but computers are so progressive now that it's hard to stay ahead of the curve. Every time I think it's ready, someone puts out something bigger and better."

"You'll figure it out," Sara reassured her. "You always do."

Felicity looked her in the eye and smiled. "Thanks. I'm just hoping it's enough."

"Enough for what?" Sara asked.

With a wry look, Felicity answered, "Enough to put Queen Consolidated back in good standing. If we can market this, we might stand a fighting chance in hell of saving the company."

Sara looked at Felicity and smiled in awe and affection. Felicity had spent the last nine years of her life developing a technology worthy of recognition, and even now, that wasn't what she was looking for. Felicity didn't care about fame or personal wealth; all she wanted to do was replenish and stabilize her best friend's company.

After awhile, Felicity caught on to Sara's staring and she looked up to meet Sara's eyes with caution. "What?" she asked slowly.

"Just . . . _you_," Sara said. "Will you never stop amazing me?"

"Why would I do that? It would take all the fun out of our relationship," Felicity joked.

They fell into a peaceful silence. There was no sound between them apart from the rain pouring down outside the window and the tapping of Felicity's fingers against her keyboard. In the silence, Sara laid back on her end of the sofa, resting her head against the arm and allowing her feet to encroach upon Felicity's unmarked space, until their feet were tangled together. Felicity glanced up once briefly with what looked like a secretive smile, but she didn't say anything, so Sara felt safe to continue slowly rubbing the inside of her foot against Felicity's ankle.

It was such a simple act, yet it was weighted with something that the both of them recognized. Done purely out of an innocent desire to bridge the gap between them and be connected in some way, this small bit of contact wasn't charged but rather comforting. Sara expected nothing from Felicity and vice versa, yet it made them both feel close to one another.

They kept this up until eventually, Sara couldn't hold back her yawn anymore.

Felicity's head perked up in attention, which would have been comical if not for the expression of deep concern on her face. She turned her head to look at the clock, and her eyes widened when she realized that the time was nearly three in the morning. Felicity looked back to Sara apologetically.

"It's late– or early, depending on how you look at it. You should get some sleep," Felicity told her. "My bed is all yours tonight."

Sara frowned, which Felicity thought was kind of uncharacteristically adorable. "I'm not commandeering your bed, Felicity. Unless you want to share?"

Felicity blanched for all of five seconds before her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You're doing that thing where you purposely try to get me flustered again, aren't you," she questioned.

Sara wanted to say that _no, she really wasn't_, but she changed her mind at the last second and hid her thoughts with a smile. "You caught me," she played along. She saw something flicker across Felicity's features, but it was gone so fast that Sara didn't have time to analyze it. "Seriously, Felicity. I'll be fine on your incredibly comfortable couch tonight." She held up three fingers, "Scout's honor."

"You're not a scout," Felicity pointed out.

"I'm The Canary," Sara replied with a shrug. "I'm whatever people need me to be."

Felicity stood and then bent down to kiss Sara's cheek, lingering for a moment longer than necessary, before she drew back and looked into Sara's eyes. "You're Sara Lance, and you are _everything_ we need you to be," Felicity told her. "Goodnight, Sara."

Still in her surprised state of astonishment, Sara lifted her hand to her cheek where Felicity had kissed her. "Goodnight, Felicity."

. . .

As Felicity laid in her bed that night, staring up at the ceiling, she thought about Sara's offer. _Unless you want to share?_ Sara had said. At first Felicity had thought Sara was trying to get her blushing and tongue-tied as usual, but when she had guessed as much, she thought there had been a sadness to Sara's smile, as if she really hadn't been joking at all.

It was impossible, Felicity knew that. Sara was beautiful and strong; she could kick ass, she could analyze DNA, and she could make anyone from a playboy billionaire to the daughter of Ra's al Ghul fall in love with her. She was a mystery, a complexity, and an enigma, one that Felicity knew she could never possibly hope to unravel or clarify or understand. Sara was burned and scarred and broken, and yet that somehow only served to make Felicity want her all the more.

Felicity was a protector and caretaker to all her hero friends, but she didn't just want to protect and take care of Sara. Felicity wanted to allow herself to fall for her. In the end, she thought maybe she already had.

She fell asleep that night wishing she had taken Sara up on her offer, if only so she could pretend for a little while that Sara could ever someday be hers.

* * *

**A/N: This is mostly just a filler chapter to show where everyone is after the battle. Next chapter there will be ensuing craziness when Felicity and Sara have to take on a mysterious foe by themselves without any help from the rest of Team Arrow.  
**


	9. Duo

**I hope you guys like this one. I don't know though . . . it's kind of long . . lol  
This chapter is a little different and I had it written as a kind of stand-alone piece but it fit in really well to this story onc****e I changed a few things around. It's written sorta like a complete Smoaking Canary-centric episode. Let me know what your thoughts on it.**

* * *

–Duo–

**W**hen Chief Lance had brought her on as a tech consultant, Felicity hadn't been sure what to expect. Fortunately, it had been pretty straight-forward work so far; find any and all available information on the escaped convicts for the detectives assigned to their cases, research any other inquiries they requested, scan city camera footage, track phone calls, and rescue data from damaged devices. In reality, it wasn't all that different from working with Oliver, except now everything she did was legal. It took away the thrill she got from doing something she knew she shouldn't be doing, but Felicity loved it anyway.

Felicity had just finished pinging a cell phone for Detectives Bentley and Gage, and they were heading out of the precinct, when her desk phone rang.

"This is Felicity Smoak," she answered.

"Felicity, hey!" Sara was practically yelling with relief.

"Sara, where are you calling me from? And why did you call the precinct instead of my phone?" the IT-girl asked, immediately surmising from Sara's tone that something had gone wrong.

"My cell phone is sorta . . . um, you know, that's really not important," Sara said. "I'm calling from the telephone booth on Rickards and Main." She must have known Felicity was about to question her, because next she said, "It's a long story. I'll explain later. Can you meet me at the cave?"

"Yes. Of course," Felicity answered.

"Good. Just . . . be mindful of your surroundings, and make sure you're not being followed," the older woman warned.

Felicity got a sinking feeling in the bottom of her stomach and she asked worriedly, "Are you okay?"

It seemed as if Sara wasn't going to respond as she was quiet for so long, then she replied, "I will be. I'll see you soon."

Sara hung up and Felicity did so as well. She had a bad feeling about all of this.

Felicity stood up to go find Chief Lance and tell him she had to leave for 'reasons'. When she turned, she felt another body slam into hers. By some stroke of sheer luck, that body just happened to belong to the man she was looking for.

"Chief Lance, I'm sorry. I have to–"

"I know," Quentin broke in. He leaned in slightly so he wouldn't be heard by the other detectives in the vicinity. "Our girl was spotted downtown. As the Canary."

Felicity pulled back in surprise. "It's broad daylight!"

"I know," Lance replied darkly. "So when you see my daughter, tell her that her father has a few words for her."

Not wanting to get in the middle of a Lance family feud, Felicity just said, "Yes, sir."

As she was bolting out of the precinct, she passed Laurel. The older girl caught her by the arm to stop her for a moment. There was a knowing look in Laurel's eyes when she locked gazes with Felicity.

"I'm guessing you heard?" Felicity inquired.

Laurel nodded minutely. "It's all over the news that the Black Canary is back in action," the elder Lance sister explained. "From what I've heard in passing, every law official from here to the DA's office has an opinion on it, and not all of them are good. She needs to be more careful."

"I know. I'll tell her," Felicity promised.

Laurel smiled gratefully. "Thanks," she said, but from the way she said it, Felicity knew she had more to say. "Have you heard from anybody lately?" she finally asked.

By 'anyone' Felicity knew Laurel meant Oliver. Her concern was not unfounded, of course. Oliver had left town with Thea and Roy just hours after the battle with Slade was finished, and though Laurel had put on a brave face in the aftermath of her kidnapping, all the members of Team Arrow who had remained in Starling knew that Laurel was struggling. Sara had mentioned briefly to Felicity that Laurel had taken Sin in, if only to feel a little less alone, and Sin had been keeping a close eye on her.

"I haven't," Felicity answered with what she hoped was a sympathetic but not patronizing tone.

Laurel looked crestfallen for half a second, before she schooled her features back into a confident mask of indifference. "Oh. Okay."

Felicity couldn't help herself anymore, so she stepped up to Laurel and put her arms around the older woman's back. Laurel tensed in a moment of shock, but soon relaxed and reciprocated the comforting hug that Felicity offered. "They'll be back soon. I'm sure of it. And in the mean time," – Felicity stepped back to a more suitable distance – "you're not alone, Laurel. Just remember that."

"He asked me to go with him," Laurel murmured, as if to herself. Her eyes flashed to Felicity's face. "I'm beginning to think that I should have, but the city was in chaos and DA Spencer was dead. I felt a responsibility to Starling City and I couldn't understand how Oliver didn't– how he could just up and leave when we needed him the most."

Felicity knew that feeling all too well. Oliver had disappeared after his fight with Malcolm Merlyn as well, when half of The Glades had been destroyed. Felicity had wondered back then too. She knew exactly where Laurel was stuck right now.

"When Malcolm Merlyn's second earthquake machine took out half The Glades, five-hundred-and-three people died. One of them was Oliver's best friend in the world, and he blamed himself. This time, Slade did a lot of damage. He injected Roy with the mirakuru, then he used him to fuel an entire army of mirakuru soldiers. He kidnapped Thea. He kidnapped you. He murdered Oliver's mother. He came _this close_ to killing Sara. Now Oliver blames himself again," Felicity explained. "He never even gave himself the chance to grieve his mother's death. Seeing Starling in shambles like it is right now, it wouldn't have helped him. It only would have kept destroying him a little bit more inside. He needed to leave in order to heal. I'm just happy he didn't go back to that stupid island again."

"You understand him better than I do," Laurel stated.

"No. I've just seen what all of these near-misses do to him," Felicity argued. She smiled wryly, "Trust me, you'll get used to it."

Laurel looked at Felicity as if seeing her for the first time. "Thank you, Felicity."

Felicity nodded with a smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go bail your sister out of whatever trouble she's gotten herself into now," Felicity told her.

"Go for it. I'm just glad I'm not the only one doing it anymore."

* * *

**A**s Sara had instructed her, Felicity was careful to make sure she wasn't followed on her way to the foundry. She slipped into the vacant Verdant and went into the lair through the back pantry access. She wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but when she came down the stairs to find Sara sitting on the steel table with a bottle of antiseptic, a tin tray, and a roll of gauze sitting beside her, Felicity had a feeling that their brief reprieve from danger and crime-fighting was officially over.

She didn't say anything, just stepped around to face Sara and take a look at the other woman's injuries. Sara had stripped down to her underwear, so her old scars were clearly visible among the new injuries that would surely leave more. She had what looked to be a wound from a bullet graze on her left calf. Her bottom lip was broken open and she had a scrape across her cheek that still had particles of gravel embedded into it. Similar scrapes covered both of Sara's elbows and knees, her knuckles, and her right side ribs and hip. Sara had a pair of tweezers in her hand and was currently trying to pick out as many of the miniscule pebbles embedded into her flesh as she could, but her hand was shaking.

"Here, let me," Felicity said, gently taking the tweezers from her friend's tremulous fingers. She began picking out the dirt as she asked, "What happened?"

"There was this ninja motorcyclist and a girl and then there were more of them," Sara tried to explain.

"The ninjas on motorcycles or the girls?" Felicity asked, looking up to Sara. She felt like she was missing a key element of this story.

"Both," the vigilante answered. "So I changed into the Canary suit and chased after them. One of them shot at me so I changed routes and tried to head them off at Railway Crossing, but they managed to get by just before the train came and I wiped out trying to stop before I crashed into it. I should have just tried to jump it."

Felicity's eyes widened. "Um, no! You shouldn't have!" she yelled. Her tone shooting through three octaves made it clear that she thought Sara was crazy for even thinking of risking herself further. "And why do you think they were ninjas?"

"The first one I saw took out four armed guards in ten seconds, and he was wearing a helmet, which, for starters, is top-heavy and throws off your center of gravity, and it also limits your peripheral vision. Plus, they had a very distinctive fighting style that I've seen before."

"In the League of Assassins?"

"No, _with_ the League of Assassins," Sara said. "They're called _Al-Qafelh_, 'The Caravan'."

"Why would they be called 'The Caravan'?" Felicity asked hesitantly, knowing that she probably didn't want to know the answer.

"They're an international group of human traffickers," Sara explained. "Mostly women and young girls, but they occasionally capture men and boys when there's a demand for them. Once when Nyssa and I were in Nepal, we saw an entire family get snatched up– father, mother, two daughters, and a son."

Felicity listened as she continued picking gravel from Sara's scrapes and cleaning the graze on her calf. "But you didn't do anything," she guessed out loud.

Sara frowned guiltily. "No, I didn't. Nyssa wanted to – she has this thing about children – but we had a mark," Sara sighed, "and we had to get in and out. When we were done, Nyssa tried to track The Caravan down again, but we lost the trail and were never able to pick it back up. It was like they had vanished."

"Hence the 'ninja' part," Felicity surmised. She finished wrapping gauze around the bullet graze on Sara's calf and tied it off not too tightly. "You're going to need to _bathe_ in antiseptic, you know," Felicity told her, if only for a change of subject. "You literally look like you've been dragged behind a train for miles. I mean, you still look beautiful, but definitely dragged-behind-a-train-ish."

"Gee, thanks," Sara shot back sarcastically. She jumped to her uninjured foot and began hopping over to Felicity's computers. "But I'm more concerned with finding the guys who are taking girls in _my_ city."

Felicity followed behind her hurriedly. Just when Sara lost her balance and began falling, Felicity caught her gently and pressed her into the nearby desk. Sara was reluctant to meet her friend's eyes because she knew they would be full of worry and objection, and sure enough, they were.

"Stop," Felicity told her, taking Sara's injured face gently in her hands. "I know you want to catch these guys, and so do I, but you were caught out in broad daylight as The Canary and the news has footage. Your dad is _very_ unhappy and your sister is freaking out. You're hurt and you're tired." The younger blonde paused and ghosted her thumb across the scrape on Sara's cheek. Her voice was stern and purposeful when she continued, "So here's what is going to happen: you're going to hop on over to the new-age computerized showers that I have _painstakingly_ installed in our sanctuary from prying eyes for just such occasions as these and then you're going to hop on over to that cot over there and you're going to _rest_ and you're _not_ going to argue with me," Felicity added pointedly as Sara pulled back and began to object, "because it's not going to do you any good. Meanwhile, _I _am going to find us a lead on these guys."

"Fine," Sara said petulantly, pulling away after realizing that Felicity was not going to back down no matter how hard she was glared at. "You win." She began skulking away as best she could while hopping on one foot.

Felicity sat down at her computer chair. "I always do," she smugly replied. She heard a clang coming from behind her, but she didn't look away from her screen. "Please don't fall on your face!" she called over her shoulder.

"You're hilarious!" was Sara's only angry and sarcastic retort.

Felicity chuckled to herself as she launched into full-on research-mode.

* * *

**A**fter Sara was finally able to fall asleep, her dreams were plagued by the frightened faces of the girls as they were carried away by members of The Caravan, and she woke just a few short hours later in a cold sweat. It took her a moment to regain her bearings and remember where she was. She had gotten used to waking up on Felicity's comfy couch in the homey atmosphere of the IT-girl's apartment, as it had now become commonplace for Sara to slip into Felicity's apartment and fall asleep on the sofa after a night of crime-fighting. The light blue glow of the lights in the lair and the clacking of computer keys tipped Sara off as to where she was and why.

As soon as she stood she was reminded of the graze on her calf and the scrapes across a good portion of her body. Everything ached and she felt weakened by the past twenty-four hours in ways she wasn't used to anymore. During her days in the League, Sara could have stood up and walked around like nothing had happened and she didn't feel a thing; she felt like a wuss compared to her former hardened self.

Sara tried to walk with an even measured gait toward where Felicity was still sitting transfixed with her screens. Sometime in the last couple of hours, dark circles had appeared under Felicity's eyes. Her brow and nose and chin were wrinkled, clearly from scowling for so long now and she looked a little jittery. Sara took note of the giant-sized Java Bean cup sitting off to Felicity's left and she got a bad feeling. Meanwhile Felicity hadn't even acknowledged Sara's sudden presence yet.

"Felicity," Sara said after a moment.

"OH! GOD!" Felicity gasped, jumping about four feet out of her chair before Sara was able to grab her and pull her back down. She turned angry eyes on her former-assassin friend. "Sara! I swear to God, we need to put a bell on you or something!"

Sara put one hand on the side of Felicity's face and smoothed her thumb over the younger woman's cheek soothingly. "I'm sorry," Sara told her sincerely. "I didn't mean to scare you. Are you okay?"

Felicity huffed. "Oh, I'm fine!" the smaller blonde snapped sarcastically, standing to her feet. "You know, aside from the fact that I can't find _any_ trace of our new ninja bad guys, and The Canary is plastered _all over_ the media networks, and they've identified the girls who were taken so now they have names and families and friends which makes the stakes seem just _so much_ higher than before, and now your father is sending Laurel over with everything the police have on the case which evidently isn't much, and I have no idea how to find these guys and even if I did, how the _hell_ are we supposed to take them down when Roy and Diggle and Oliver are off gallivanting elsewhere and leaving _us_ alone to deal with _EVERYTHING_?!" Finally, Felicity seemed to run out of steam, and the pacing that she had taken up during her rant came to a halt. She looked no less frazzled and worked up, but at least she wasn't screaming anymore.

Pleading blue eyes turned on Sara. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do," Felicity confessed quietly before turning to her desk and leaning on her hands against it with slumped shoulders. "I just hate this and I wish the rest of the team were here. And I've been staring at these screens for so long that now everything is blurry."

A wave of concern for her defeated friend washed over Sara. "You just need to untense," Sara said, stepping up behind Felicity and putting a hand on either of the IT-girl's shoulders. Her face turn into an even more consternate frown at the tightly knotted muscles she felt. "Wow. You _really_ need to untense."

"I don't know how I can when–" Felicity broke off in the middle of her objection when she felt Sara's strong thumbs working at the knots in her shoulders and back. She reflexively dropped her head forward and groaned, "Oh. _Wow_. Sara, you're a godsend. I don't know what I ever did without you."

Sara leaned in maybe closer than she should have, as she replied, "You know I'd do just about anything for you, but you tend to have that effect on people."

The infliction of Felicity's answering hum caused a pleasant shudder from the crown of Sara's head to the tips of her toes, and her heart to beat a little harder. In fact, all the appreciative sounds that Felicity was – no doubt inadvertently – making, from the breathy sigh of relief that fell from her lips to the throaty groan that issued from somewhere deep inside Felicity, were turning Sara into a bundle of nerves herself. She was just beginning to wonder how Felicity would respond to Sara ripping the sheer blouse off of her, when she heard footsteps on the stairs.

"Oh God!" Laurel's voice rang out throughout the cave. "I'm interrupting something, aren't I!"

Felicity spun on the balls of her feet in abrupt attention. "NO! No, you– you're fine, Laurel. We were just . . . I mean, Sara was . . . It's fine," Felicity stammered.

Laurel's eyes turned onto her sister, whose face was completely covered in a rare burgundy blush. Sara's mind was short-circuiting, both from her inappropriately timed, extremely untoward thoughts about Felicity and from Laurel catching her in the middle of them as if Sara was fifteen all over again. She tried to force her mouth to open and make something intelligible and convincing come out, but nothing would. Even having her hands on Felicity in a supposedly platonic and innocent way had left Sara speechless and reeling. Never before in her life had Sara been so attracted to someone on so many different levels, and she needed time to process this revelation.

"Exactly," Sara finally managed to choke out.

Choosing then to rapidly change subjects, Felicity turned to Laurel. "Um, do you have something for me?" she asked, nodding to the file in Laurel's hand.

The gleam in Laurel's eyes told both girls that this event would be brought up at a later time, but she turned her attention to the problem at hand. "Yeah. Four girls were taken from four different locations throughout Starling City," she explained as she handed the file to Felicity who flipped the manila folder open. Sara began reading over Felicity's shoulder, as Laurel continued her explanation.  
"Jessica Myles, age 14, was taken from the Starr Shopping Mall. She was with friends who say that a man on a motorcycle drove _through_ the mall, grabbed Jessica in one arm, and kept riding. Christine Chamberlain, 19, was with her father at Diamond Stadium. Witnesses saw her being snatched from the parking lot when she went out to get something from the car. Tammy Wright was sixteen, and she was taken from an art gallery downtown."  
Felicity flipped to the last profile and saw a girl who looked a little too much like a Sin-Thea cross-clone for Felicity's liking. "That's Delphine Kastle. 15. She was–"

"Abducted from the City Pavilion just outside Leo's Sandwich Stand," Sara finished, taking the photograph of Delphine Kastle from the file and looking at it, "where The Canary tried to stop her kidnappers."

"Out in broad daylight," Laurel added pointedly. "What were you thinking, Sara?"

Just as Sara was about to launch in with a defensive retort, Felicity held up her hand. "_Guys_," she interrupted sternly. "Do you two think you could postpone your sister smack-down until _after_ we find these girls? Please and thank you?" Both Lance sisters begrudgingly conceded, but Felicity's sole focus was still on the case file. "Okay. Four teenage girls, abducted from four different locations, by four different ninja motorcyclists. This seems _too_ random to actually _be_ random," Felicity mused out loud. "I mean, Sara, you said this Caravan was a huge organization right? And an organization implies that its members are organized. They have to be, otherwise they would have been caught by now. Maybe I've been looking at this wrong."

"What are you thinking?" Sara asked, seeing that Felicity was going somewhere with this.

Felicity turned to her. "Maybe it's not where the abductors disappeared to after they ducked you at Railway Crossing," Felicity said to Sara. "It's not about how they vanished, it's about their destination. They're human traffickers, right? They traffic humans. But _how_? How are they going to move the girls? Jessica, Christine, Tammy, and Delphine, their faces are all over the news networks, police are searching everywhere, there isn't a single law official who isn't on the lookout for these girls. I mean, the SCPD has blocked off every road in and out of Starling City and they are _watching_. So how are these men intending on hiding these girls? They can't hold them in the city, because there isn't an inch of ground in a ten mile radius that isn't being combed over with a fine toothed brush. They can't drive them out of the jurisdiction because all the road accesses are being scrutinized. They can't fly them out because, I mean, _come on_," Felicity said emphatically. "Airport security is tighter than the CIA these days. So what's the one other way out of the city?"

"By boat," Laurel said. "It's low-key–"

"–And once they get a hundred miles off American shores there isn't anything that anyone can do about it," Sara said. "We have to be looking down by the ports, the docks, the harbor . . ."

"Which is a lot of area for one person to cover alone," Felicity told her.

"Lucky for you two, she's not."

Felicity turned toward the source of the familiar voice and she almost squealed with delight and relief. She ran and practically threw herself into John's strong arms and he lifted her off the ground for a moment before setting her back on her feet. Felicity turned to hug Lyla as well. "Digg, Lyla," she greeted them warmly. "Man, did you two pick a good time to come home."

Digg laughed his deep, rumbling laugh that always put Felicity more at ease. "We've been keeping up on the latest in Starling City news," he explained. "When we saw this one" – he nodded his chin toward Sara – "dressed as The Canary in the middle of a crowded marketplace, we figured you were probably in hot water, so we decided we should head home."

"Well, we were doing pretty good right up until today," Sara defended with an affronted frown.

Laurel turned to Diggle. "What she means is, thank you for coming home to help bail her out of trouble," the attorney explained. "And I _really_ wish we had more time to catch up and ask what you guys have been up to, but we're kind of on an amber alert right now."

"Absolutely," Digg said, already in his protective mode.

"By what we heard on the way down here, we're looking for a boat?" Lyla asked.

"Human trafficking," Sara explained. "The best way to smuggle the girls out would probably be on a cargo ship, unless they have a private boat which is doubtful. I don't think they would want to draw attention. Docking in Starling before the kidnappings and leaving right after? That would look suspicious."

"But freighters run on schedules every few days," Digg supplied. "That would make more sense. The best place to look would be at the docks."

Lyla turned to the girls, specifically to Sara. "John and I can start at the north end and you can start at the south."

Diggle's whole body became tense as she said this and he whipped his head around to her. "Are you sure that's such a good idea?" he asked worriedly in a hushed voice. "Maybe you should stay out of the crosshairs while you're . . ."

Felicity looked between the two several times, the cogs and gears in her head turning as she tried to figure out why her friend was attempting to deter his special agent girlfriend/ex-wife from going with them. She noted the anxiety that had clung to John like a blanket since the couple first arrived, and the slightly amused but irritated glow surrounding Lyla. It wasn't that hard to put two and two together.

"Oh my God," she said out loud, a smile starting to split her face. "Oh my God," she repeated. Sara and Laurel looked at her like she had suddenly sprouted a second head, while Lyla smiled knowingly at her and Digg looked caught between amusement and reluctance. "Lyla, are you . . . are you pregnant?" Felicity asked, her excitement beginning to outweigh everything else.

Lyla looked beside her at Digg. "See, Johnny? I told you she'd figure it out in the first ten minutes," she told him smugly. Lyla looked at Felicity and said conspiratorially, "He owes me twenty bucks. Don't let him forget that."

"Oh, wow!" Sara said, just as Laurel announced, "Congratulations!"

"Ah!" Felicity squealed, waving her hands at her sides before she was able to calm down. "Sorry. Okay. I'm good."

"We have a lot to catch you up on," Lyla told them, "_after_ we find these girls and get them home to their families." She looked at Digg pointedly.

The man still looked apprehensive about the idea of sending his pregnant wife into a situation involving potential gunfire. "Lyla, you could stay here with Felicity and still be a part of this," he offered as an alternative.

"John, I'm going," Lyla stated plainly, leaving no room for argument.

Felicity scoffed at Digg and crossed her arms over her chest. She quirked an eyebrow at her towering friend. "And who said anything about Felicity staying here?" Felicity demanded indignantly. "I've had my eyeballs glued to computer screens for the last five hours and I am _not_ about to spend another second cooped up down here playing the cyber-sidekick. Besides, I've got some new thermo-imaging tech I think might be useful."

Sara looked like she really wanted to argue. Felicity had a bad habit of getting hurt every time she stepped outside her 'cyber-sidekick' role during a fight, but Sara couldn't honestly say that she was much better. She had the scars to prove otherwise, and if that weren't evidence enough, she now had a whole new set of fresh injuries that Felicity had spent most of her morning cleaning up and dressing. Felicity wasn't stupid or reckless and she _had_ spent a lot of time training with Sara in the last three weeks. Sara had seen the improvement herself and she was incredibly impressed and proud. Felicity was getting really good, just maybe not quite ninja-motorcyclist-international-human-trafficker good. Yet.

"Like Lyla said, she and Digg can start at the north end, and Sara and I will start at the south," Felicity went on, ignoring Sara's obvious discomfort. "Laurel, can you call Sin and see if she'll come watch from here with my eyes in the sky? She's figured out all my equipment already. You should tell your dad the plan so he can have his men check the ports and harbor, just in case we're missing something."

"Okay," Digg said reluctantly, "if we're gonna do this, we better get started."

Everyone started moving toward the different sections of the lair. Laurel went into the back to call Sin, John and Lyla went to put on their gear and arm themselves, and Felicity went over to her station and started gathering her tablet and new tech. Sara followed Felicity over and stood next to her, but she didn't say anything for a long time. She just stared at Felicity, wondering how best to go about trying to deter Felicity from going without sounding controlling or condescending. Finally, just when Sara was about to open her mouth and speak, Felicity turned her head. Their eyes met and Felicity sighed as she turned to face Sara fully.

"I know you're worried," Felicity began, "but I need to do this. Especially for myself, but also . . . for you." Sara opened her mouth again, but Felicity continued before she could get a word in. "I saw the look on your face when Laurel mentioned the boats, _and_ when Lyla and Digg started talking about cargo ships and freighters. You were scared. You try to hide it, but I see it."

"That doesn't mean you need to put yourself in danger, Felicity," Sara argued back. "Especially not for me."

"I told you, I'm doing this especially for _myself_, Sara," Felicity told her emphatically. "It's one thing to spar with you down here," she said looking at Sara and around the lair, "but I'm never going to feel like I can really defend myself unless I'm facing someone who I know _will_ actually hurt me, and that's not you. I know that you would never hurt me, Sara, and I love you for that, really I do, but I'm never going to know if I can do this if I don't take a risk." Felicity blue eyes bore into Sara's green ones with an intensity that made Sara want to pull Felicity closer and melt into her. "Saving you from Slade was pure chance, and I don't want to leave it to chance anymore. If you're in trouble, Sara, I want to know that I can save you, every time. I don't want to be just the cute IT-girl anymore. I want to be _more_."

Sara placed her hand on Felicity's warm arm and stepped in a little closer. She stared into the younger woman's eyes and smoothed her fingers through the blonde hair that ran from Felicity's temples. "You are already so much _more_, Felicity Smoak" Sara told her in a hushed and honest voice, "but if you really feel like you need to do this . . . then we'll do it together. But we're doing it _together_, Felicity. You and me, as a team."

Felicity smiled. "Dynamic duo?" she questioned.

Sara gently bumped her forehead against Felicity's in a sign of affection. "Dynamic duo," she agreed. "So let's go take down some bad guys."

* * *

"**T**his is it," Felicity said, stopping Sara with a hand on The Canary's forearm. She looked at the feedback from her thermo-imaging device.

Sara came to look over her shoulder. "How can you tell?" she asked, scanning the well-defined heat signatures aboard the cargo ship.

"The four teenage girl-sized heat signatures all bunched together in the lower hold kind of gives it away," Felicity explained, pointing to the huddle of red, orange,and yellow colored figures.

"They're scared," Sara noted, seeing that the four figures seemed to be burning a little hotter than all the others on board.

"Yeah, well, I would be too if I weren't wearing Kevlar and carrying a compound crossbow pistol," Felicity remarked dryly. She pressed the comm in her ear to initiate the automatic audio transceiver. "Digg, Lyla, we found them. I'm sending you our location in three . . . two . . one."

_"Copy that. We're on our way,_" Digg answered.

Sara made a face at Felicity. "And you look damn cute wearing your nice, safe, bulletproof vest that will save your life if you get shot in the chest again," she retorted sternly.

Felicity still looked unhappy as she quietly tiptoed aboard the ship. "I don't see _you_ wearing anything bulletproof!" she shot back in a whisper.

"_I'm_ an international assassin!" Sara argued. "_I_ learned the hard way– by getting shot and stabbed and sliced open a couple hundred times!"

"You _still_ get shot and stabbed and sliced open!" Felicity muttered under her breath as the two crept quietly into the cabin. "Sin, I need you to broaden the range of the thermo detection to include us now, it'll let us know when we're getting close to the girls," she added. She watched with bated breath as the image on the device's screen started to look less like a color spectrum and more like a game of Pac-Man.

After a few more minutes, a few more well-aimed arrows from Felicity's crossbow, a few more crew members incapacitated by Sara, a few more barbs exchanged between them, and few hundred more steps, Sara was bending down and opening a hatch to reveal four scared teenagers. They looked even more scared at the sight of a crossbow-wielding blonde and The Canary, but Felicity tucked her device into a pocket and set down her crossbow. She held her hands up where the girls could see them and Sara followed her example (_for once_, Felicity thought).

"It's okay," Felicity assured them. "We're the good guys." She tipped her head toward Sara, "This is Canary, and I'm . . . Not important. What _is_ important is that we're going to get you guys out of here and back to your families, okay? Come on." She offered out her hand to each of the girls as they clambered from the hold. Felicity noticed how two of the girls, Christine and Tammy, were holding Delphine up.

"You're hurt. What happened to you?" The Canary asked Delphine.

Gritting her teeth, the sixteen-year-old girl answered, "They wanted to take Tammy somewhere alone. I wasn't completely comfortable with that idea, so I tried to stop them. They took me instead."

Felicity noticed the angry glare in Sara's eyes that was not directed at Delphine, but instead at her attackers. When Sin and Felicity were talking in the hospital before the battle with Slade, Sin had mentioned something that Sara had said to her once. _No woman should suffer at the hands of men_. Delphine had clearly suffered at the hands of men, and now Sara looked like she was out for blood.

"Keep it in check, Canary," Felicity warned her in a low voice.

"We've gotta get you girls out of here," The Canary said.

Felicity took Delphine to her non-dominant side, so she could still aim her crossbow. "Canary's going to lead. The rest of you follow her. I've got Delphine," she instructed. Sara nodded to her in understanding and they left the hold to work their way back through the labyrinth of corridors.

When they finally reached the upper deck, Felicity couldn't remember ever feeling so relieved before in her life. She decided then and there that she hated boats almost as much as Sara did. She could see Digg and Lyla hopping on board and helping Sara get the girls back on the docks. Felicity passed Delphine to Digg, who scooped her up in his arms and carried her back toward solid land. Felicity was the last to try to climb off the boat, but when she did, she felt someone catch her by the ankle and drag her roughly back onto the freighter. She lost her balance and smacked her chin off the railing as she fell face-first onto the ship's deck.

. . .

Lyla and Sara only stopped running the girls farther onto shore when they were out of earshot of the docks. Jessica tripped and fell forward into Tammy and Christine barely managed to catch the both of them before they all fell in a panting heap on the cold, hard, cracked pavement. Lyla began checking them all over for signs of harm and, aside from mild dehydration, hunger, and a few cuts and bruises, they looked reasonably unscathed on the outside. John ran up behind them with Delphine in his arms and he lowered her to the ground and bunched his jacket under her head as a pillow. It took them all a moment to regain their bearings and allow their minds to catch up with the rest of them. When they finally did, one thing became startlingly clear to Sara.

"Digg, where's Felicity?" Sara demanded, suddenly on high-alert again.

Diggle turned around as if expecting to find Felicity right behind him. His eyes widened as he met Sara's gaze. "She passed one of the girls to me. I thought she was right behind me," he said, fear creeping into his voice as well.

Sara's head snapped back in the direction of the ship.

. . .

The pain of Felicity's jawbone vibrating from its collision with the railing and the sting of the scrape on her temple that she acquired when her head hit the steel deck was nothing compared to the kick she received to her stomach or the headache that became full-blown when someone grabbed her by the hair and yanked her head back. She found herself face-to-face with a dark-masked man. Felicity tried to land a solid punch to the man's stomach but found her hand in pain from hitting lead instead of flesh.

"Ah!" she cried out.

"You think you can come onto my ship and take what belongs to me!" the man yelled, tossing Felicity forward.

She managed to catch herself by her hands and push herself to her feet before he could do anymore damage to her. "Those girls don't belong to you!" Felicity screamed back at him. She splayed her hands to either side of her and quipped, "And what ever happened to finders keepers?"

With an angry roar he charged at her again. It was all Felicity could do to defend herself against his blows, but she managed to land some of her own, though they were few and far between. The trafficker seemed to have endless energy and Felicity's own was quickly waning. She knew she was no match for him; Sara had been right, she wasn't prepared to take on international human trafficker ninjas, but she was where she was. She tried to drive a kick into his shin, but in doing so, she gave up her strong foundation. The man clocked her and suddenly Felicity was looking up at the night sky, rather than her attacker, then she was looking at both as he merged into her line of vision.

"Normally, I would partake in more pleasant activities with a pretty woman on her back," the man sneered, "but I'm afraid your thievery and insolence detracts from your appeal."

"Not from where I'm standing," The Canary announced from her perch on the ship's railing.

Her arrival distracted the man long enough to leave him vulnerable to Felicity's strong uppercut. He stumbled back and she leapt to her feet and turned to look at Sara. Just as Digg and Lyla showed up with their guns drawn and pointed at the man, he lunged forward and grabbed Felicity. The trafficker pressed his forearm against her throat and kept her body close to his as he shuffled back away from the firearms.

"Let her go, you sick son of a bitch!" Digg yelled, finger tensing on the trigger.

"You steal my girls, I steal yours," the man returned. "So here's how this is going to work: You can keep your whiny teenagers and I'll take this lovely creature instead. She'll fetch a fair price at auction, as long as she doesn't open her bitch mouth."

Sara tensed at the word, but before she could do anything, Felicity moved into action. She drove her heel into the abductor's toes, causing his pressure against her throat to slacken, then Felicity pivoted and jabbed her elbow back into his lower torso, before hitting him with a second uppercut. Sara watched as everything seemed to slow down suddenly and, as the man fell backwards over the railing towards the dark harbor waters, Felicity was pulled back with him.

"FELICITY!" Sara, Digg, and Lyla's collective scream rang out into the night air.

The three rushed over to the other side of the deck and looked down into the liquid shadows. Sara felt like her heart had migrated into her throat and she climbed up on the railing to John and Lyla's shouts of, "Sara, no!" She threw herself over the side and dove into the dark waters after Felicity.

It was somehow colder than Sara had expected it to be, which was saying something considering she had been expecting it to be as cold as the North China Sea. She couldn't see a thing, just blackness and her own hands in front of her. Her eyes burned from the ocean water and it wasn't long before her lungs were burning as well from lack of oxygen. Sara couldn't tell if she was blacking out or if it was just that dark, but soon she felt an arm slip around her waist. She fought as first, as she thought the arm was dragging her down deeper into the waters, then everything began slipping away from her.

. . .

As Felicity's head broke through the surface, she sucked in a deep gasp and tried to keep Sara's head above the water as well. She looked up to see Digg and Lyla searching the darkness for her, so she yelled up to them, "Nice night for a swim, don't you think?"

"Felicity?" Digg yelled down to her finally spotting her. "Hold on, okay? We'll meet you further down the docks!"

"Okay!" she responded loudly enough for them to hear her.

Felicity turned onto her back in the water, keeping her arm secure around Sara's waist, and swam like that until she got to a ladder on the dock. Digg and Lyla ran over and met her there, and each reached a hand down to grab onto either of Sara's arms and pull her up. Shivering like it was December in Chicago, Felicity quickly followed and Digg laid Sara on her back on the dock. The two former soldiers looked The Canary over.

"She's not breathing," Digg said.

"I don't know CPR!" Felicity yelled, now completely panicking.

"It's okay. I do," Diggle told her. "I just need you to breathe for her, Felicity."

"What?!" she nearly screamed as he started chest compressions.

"You have to breathe for her, Felicity!" Digg repeated. Felicity's mind was reeling, trying to make sense of John's words. He looked up at her and told her urgently, "Breathe for her, Felicity! Now!"

It didn't give her anytime to think about it or shy away. It definitely wasn't how Felicity pictured her first kiss with Sara would be, but since she was pretty sure there was never actually going to _be_ a real first kiss with Sara, Felicity supposed the kiss of life was more than enough. So she breathed breath into Sara, trying not to focus on the sparks she felt when she did so. Saving Sara's life was the priority, and Felicity would do anything to save Sara.

When she broke away and Digg started chest compressions again, everything felt more real and defined to Felicity. The thing that felt the most real was the fact that Sara wasn't breathing. And Felicity needed her to breathe, she needed Sara to breathe as badly as she needed to breathe herself. She ran her hand over Sara's wet head and looked at her fearfully.

"Just breathe," Felicity urged her quietly. "Please, Sara, just breathe. Please just breathe."

Miraculously, it was at that moment that Sara _did_ decide to breathe again. A stream of water spouted from her mouth as she coughed and rolled to her side to empty the water from her lungs. Felicity helped her to sit up as the last few pockets of salt water were dislodged from her friend's trachea. Sara slumped against Felicity and Felicity held her until her senses seemed to slowly return. The Canary picked her head up and looked at Felicity.

"You're okay," she remarked happily.

"I was never _not_ okay," Felicity told her. "My reflexes obviously leave something to be desired, but I'm a solid swimmer." She stared at Sara and asked, "Are _you_ okay? You're the one who nearly drowned."

Sara nodded her head. "Yeah. I'm fine."

"Good," the tech girl told her. "In that case,"– she slammed her hands against both of Sara's shoulders forcefully – "_WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING_?!" Felicity screamed indignantly. It did not go unnoticed that Digg and Lyla seemed to clear out pretty fast at that time. "Having _one_ of us in the water wasn't enough? You had to jump in too?" She waited expectantly. "_Well_?"

Pure shock and little bit of hurt was written in Sara's features. "I was thinking you were going to drown and I was saving you!" Sara yelled back angrily.

"So it was better if we _both_ drowned?" Felicity questioned, the anger still there but waning now. "Do you have _any_ idea what it would have done to me if I hadn't been able to find you and pull you to the surface? If you would have drowned? If Digg hadn't been able to revive you?" Angry and fearful tears welled reflexively in Felicity's eyes at the thought. "You scared the _hell_ out of me, Sara."

Sara's entire demeanor softened at Felicity's tears and heartfelt confession. "I'm sorry. Okay. I'm sorry," Sara told her. "But you scared me too. I really thought for a minute there that I had lost you, and I can't go through that."

"Haven't you figured it out by now?" Felicity questioned her with a soft smile. "You're not getting rid of me that easily, Lance. Compared to Slade Wilson and a caved in building, tonight was just an impromptu dip in the harbor until you jumped in after me and we had to bring you back from the dead. _Again._"

Sara laughed, wiping a few errant tears from her cheeks. "Thank you for saving me. _Again_," Sara said.

Felicity swept away the last of Sara's own tears and smiled. "Anytime," she replied. "But how about not anytime soon, okay?"

She stood to her feet and held a hand out for Sara to take. When Sara was on two stable feet, Felicity wrapped an arm around her waist and led her off the docks and back to Diggle's van. He and Lyla were watching the police reuniting the four girls with their respective parents. Laurel came across the scene to stand with them and Chief Lance nodded to the five over the roof of his cruiser, before he got in to head back to the station.

After all was said and done, Laurel turned to look at her sister and friend. "Why are you two soaking wet?" she demanded bewilderedly.

* * *

Three months. That was how long it had taken Felicity to develop the thermo-imaging device, and now it was completely waterlogged. Destroyed. Irreparable, even by her hands, and that was saying something considering she had once recovered blueprints off a bullet-riddled laptop. She _really_ hated international human trafficking ninjas. Like a lot.

When she considered it in hindsight though, it could have been a lot worse. It could have been one of the girls who were destroyed and irreparable. It could have been _Sara_. Felicity could rebuild and replace the device; it was of no real value. _Sara_ was irreplaceable. _Sara_ was priceless. Felicity didn't know what she would have done if they hadn't been able to save their friend.

"Is it salvageable?" Sara asked from behind Felicity. She had just stepped out of the shower in the Arrowcave and put on clean clothes. She was still drying her hair with a towel as she walked over to Felicity's worktable.

"Not even a little," Felicity laughed, turning in her chair so her knees were pressed against Sara's where the older girl was standing and facing her.

Sara smiled hesitantly but her brow furrowed in confusion. "You don't seem all that upset," she commented. "I know you worked hard on that."

Felicity stood slowly, giving Sara time to step back from her if she wanted to, but she didn't. The IT-girl tucked damp locks of hair behind Sara's ear as she met her green eyes earnestly. "I salvaged you," Felicity said quietly. "That's all that matters to me. I can build another thermo-imaging device," – Felicity looked down as she interlaced her fingers with Sara's, then she looked back up into the older girl's eyes – "you're irreplaceable."

Sara's breath hitched at the look in Felicity's eyes that was directed entirely at her. Goosebumps crept across her skin, causing a delicious shiver over her whole body and Felicity, mistaking Sara's shiver as a symptom of the hero still being cold, took the dry cardigan off the back of her chair and wrapped it around Sara's shoulders. The younger woman pulled the two sides of the sweater together across Sara's front and held them closed with her hands.

For the second time that day, Sara had the overwhelming urge to close the miniscule distance between their bodies and make Felicity hers. The only thing holding her back was her fear that Felicity would not be so receptive to such advances. But, for just a brief moment, Sara could have sworn she saw Felicity start to lean in and her eyes flit to Sara's lips. She would never know for sure, because at that moment, fate seemed to intervene.

"Um, am I interrupting something?"

Felicity's head snapped in the direction of the voice. Her face flushed with happiness and something else as she saw who it was. "Oliver!" she laughed, leaving Sara to stride over and throw her arms around her friend. "You're back!"

"I'm back," Oliver confirmed. He gave the tech girl a tight one-armed hug in return. "Ooh, I missed you."

"Missed you too," Felicity replied.

Reality came crashing back to Sara as she looked at the pair and felt a painful twinge in her heart. _This_ was what was real; Sara loved Felicity, Felicity loved Oliver, and Oliver was probably the most emotionally unavailable man Sara had ever met. She ducked her head to give herself time to mask the disappointment on her face.

"Laurel is going to be so happy to see you," Felicity then told Oliver. Sara's head snapped back up to look at her. "She's been going out of her mind. You should go see her."

Oliver looked from Felicity to Sara and back again. "Diggle called and told me there was an emergency," he said.

"There was, but Sara and I handled it just fine on our own," Felicity told him, looking over her shoulder at Sara and beaming with pride.

"Yeah, way to show up after the crisis is already averted, Ollie," Sara played along, feeling a little lighter with every second Felicity's eyes remained solely on her.

"So go," Felicity told him, giving Oliver a little shove toward the exit. "See Laurel. Make things right. We've got everything under control." She looked at Sara again. "Dynamic duo. Right, Sara?"

Sara felt a smile split her face. "Dynamic duo," she replied.


	10. Close

–Transitions–

"**Tell** me that's not what it looks like," Diggle told Felicity, staring the the image on her computer screen.

"I would love to," Felicity answered, "unfortunately, that's not looking like a possibility."

They both looked at the image of the dead man with three, dark-fletched arrows sticking out of his chest. Felicity had come across it when the photo had been taken in Mount Justice and flagged by A.R.G.U.S. on their encrypted database. Red flags in A.R.G.U.S. never meant anything good and their team was helping where they could, especially given Lyla's connections to Amanda Waller.

"A. .S. is calling him the 'Dark Archer II'; Malcolm Merlyn was only known as 'Dark Archer' in A.R.G.U.S.'s redacted files, so you wanna know who this guy is emulating?" Felicity questioned.

"Merlyn," Digg growled.

Felicity pointed her hand at Digg in the shape of a gun. "Bingo," she answered. "Which doesn't mean anything good for us."

"And A.R.G.U.S. has no idea who this clown is?" Diggle asked skeptically.

"Nothing," Felicity confirmed. "He took out his target and vanished without a trace. No DNA, no footprints, not a single fingerprint even on the arrow, no camera shots or video footage. This guy was clean and careful, just like Merlyn. It was like he was never there. Well, you know, except for the dead guy with the trifecta of arrows through his heart obviously."

"Have you shown this to Oliver?" Digg asked sensibly.

Felicity sighed and clicked out of the window. "No," she answered, "and I know I should, it's just . . ." she paused and bit her lower lip, "we just got rid of Slade Wilson. He just got home. I think Oliver deserves a little more than three weeks off before taking a run at a killer copying his deceased best friend's psychotic father who also happens to be his baby sister's newly-discovered biological father. Meanwhile, I've asked Roy to keep a close eye on Thea, just in case."

Digg watched as Felicity rubbed her temples stressfully. She had been logging in more hours than usual ever since the whole team had come back together, and he felt like he had an idea as to why. There were never enough hours in the day to finish everything that needed to be done, and every new day brought new challenges and tasks that had to be dealt with. It never ended, and, especially to Felicity, who took all their problems onto herself, everything was like a snowball of chaos, picking up more and more mayhem as it went downhill.

Today had been no different than any other day for Team Arrow, except for the fact that Felicity and Oliver had faced a board of potential shareholders and trustees, who had returned from their hidden corners of the earth and begun looking to the son of Robert Queen for answers. The two had made their pitch for a whole new company. Too much damage had been done to the reputation of Queen Consolidated due to Isabel Rochev's very public reign as CEO. There was nothing left to do but rebuild and redirect the company from the ground up.

The idea was to liquidate the unused assets that Isabel had left in limbo after her untimely demise, and put the money toward renovating what little of Robert Queen's abandoned real estate in The Glades had been left untouched by the quake and Slade's attack on the city. The warehouses would either be converted into labs furthering the advancement of safe technology, or into power plants producing clean energy. It would provide hundreds of jobs to the unemployed residents of The Glades, and push toward the improvement of The Glades community. _Queen Industries_ would be the legacy of the Queen family for generations to come.

Which was all well and fine, except that their start-up marketing technology was the software Felicity had written and designed entirely on her own. It was her life's work, and it was nerve-wracking having a whole board of people speculating about it. She was trying to focus more on the proud look Walter had given her after she had premiered the software, rather than the odds of the board making a decision in their favor.

Unbeknownst to either Oliver or Thea, Diggle knew that Felicity had been bending over backwards for months trying to earn enough favors with the people who still held shares in the property of Queen Consolidated to at least get back the steel mill which housed the closed-down Verdant and their lair beneath it. She had also brokered a deal with Walter for a loan of enough money to get the club up and running again. Walter didn't ask too many questions about why Felicity was so intent on getting the club back for Thea and Oliver, but he was more than happy to help in her endeavors, which Felicity was doubly thankful for.

Meanwhile, at the foundry, the entire team was back together and finally facing the aftermath of their battle with Slade, which had opened up a whole new can of worms for everyone involved. Felicity was trying to find a covert way of replenishing Oliver's arsenal of arrows without drawing suspicions of another forming militia in Starling City. Roy was still attempting to repair his broken relationship with Thea, which Oliver was none too happy about. Felicity, like Sara, thought that Oliver needed to mind his own damn business, and focus more on his _own_ complicated relationship with Laurel. It had caused some tension among everyone, which Digg and Lyla were just trying to remain neutral about, because otherwise things were going to blow up into a full-scale mutiny in the Arrow family, and they really didn't want their child to be born in the middle of a feud.

It was a new chapter in the life of Team Arrow and everyone was just trying to adapt and gain their footing as they all transitioned. Felicity and Digg both knew that eventually the dust would settle (as much as things ever 'settled' with them) and the scales would rebalance themselves. That didn't make things any less stressful at the present though.

"Felicity, I think you need some sleep," Diggle told her. He picked up his jacket from the back of a nearby chair and hung it over his arm. "Come on, let's shut it down for the night. I'll drive you home."

Sleep sounded blissful to Felicity. She barely remembered what it felt like to sleep for more than a few hours at a time and not hunched over on her desk. Her bed felt like a strange, fuzzy memory now, and her body ached with longing just picturing it. She groaned.

"You go ahead," she reluctantly told her friend. "I have some things around here that I need to finish up, then I'll find a cab home."

Diggle looked skeptical and unimpressed, like he knew she was trying to pull the wool over his eyes. "I can stick around and wait for you," he offered.

Felicity stood up and gave Digg a friendly hug. "I love you for worrying about me, Digg, but really, you should go home to Lyla," she insisted. "And tell that baby lots of really good things about its Aunt Felicity."

He smiled in amusement as he finally relented, albeit grudgingly. His arms wrapped around her, returning her hug briefly before moving to leave. The IT tech waited until she heard his footsteps on the stairs and the mechanical click of the security door closing and locking, then she sat down and went back to work.

. . .

It wasn't more than a few hours later, when Felicity was interrupted again.

"Hey," said a calm, familiar voice from right behind Felicity.

Despite not having heard anyone enter the lair and suddenly having an unexpected person standing directly behind her, Felicity didn't feel startled, especially when Sara set her hands on Felicity's shoulders. It was as if something were keeping her grounded and safe.

"Hi," Felicity returned, spinning in her chair. She hadn't realized the time until she checked her watch. "I wasn't expecting you so late."

The former-assassin nodded her head up toward the ceiling. "I just finished my watch over the city," she explained. "Digg called and mentioned you were still down here. I thought I'd come see what you were working on." Sara hoisted herself onto Felicity's desk and sat right next to the computer monitor, looking at her friend expectantly.

"Bottom-lining it?" Felicity asked, trying not to look as amused by Sara's interest as she felt.

"Dumb it down for me," Sara acquiesced. "Please, I'm still learning geek-speak."

Felicity rolled her eyes at the coined term. "You speak fluent Mandarin, Japanese, Russian, and Arabic, and know ten different variations of martial arts, but you find computer science terminology to be confusing," she deadpanned. "And yet you find nothing wrong with that."

Sara shrugged, showing her carelessness. "Apparently I learn best when the only other option is death," she half-joked. "So are you going to tell me what you're doing?"

"I am reconfiguring the computer's operating system for optimal efficiency, capacity, and security," Felicity explained.

"Amazingly, I actually understood all of that," Sara said, grinning at Felicity from her perch on the desk. "You might make a tech savvy girl out of me yet, Smoak."

"Then maybe you can teach me how to punch the training dummy without breaking my fingers," the IT tech suggested. She laughed nervously and held up her hand to show Sara, "Because I, uh, think I might have done it again."

Sara dropped her head. "Ah! Felicity!" she chastised, taking Felicity's swollen knuckles in her hand with a feather-light gentleness. "How is it that you can punch _me_ with perfect aim, accuracy, and pressure, but you do this every time you try it on the dummy?"

"Because you're softer than the dummy!" Felicity offered as an explanation.

Sara rolled her eyes and prodded Felicity's hand in a few select places and Felicity hissed at the pain, but her fingers curled reflexively. The Canary smiled softly and pushed herself up from her seat. "It's just a sprain," Sara told her. "I'd take a hot shower and then put it on ice for a few minutes." She held her hand out to Felicity. "Come on, Digg told me to make sure you got home sometime tonight. Your systems will still be here in the morning, well, _later_ in the morning. It's nearly three a.m."

"But–" Felicity began to protest.

"Uh, uh," Sara cut her off. "No. _Come on_."

The vigilante grabbed Felicity's unharmed hand and pulled her to her feet, causing the stubbornly rigid Felicity to come flying out of her chair at Sara's unexpected strength. Felicity fell forward, unintentionally crushing her body against Sara's. They stood there in a moment of shock, just staring at each other but neither moving away, until Sara reached up to straighten Felicity's askew glasses and tuck a loose thread of hair behind her ear.

"Talk about sweeping a girl off her feet," Felicity quipped without thinking. Like usual, she realized her faux pas only after she'd said it aloud. "Uh . . . I mean, not– n-not that . . . I mean, we're . . ." Felicity gave up trying to correct herself and stood up straight, clearing her throat awkwardly. "I think I am actually tired. Would you mind?"

Sara tried her hardest to wipe the devilish grin off her face, but her attempts were futile. Felicity was just too damn cute all the time. Finally, her brain registered her friend's request. "No, not at all," she answered, flipping her keys in her hand.

They started up and out of the foundry. The automatic security system clicked into place as soon as the door closed behind them.

The evening air was chilly outside the club, but Felicity felt warmth spread over her entire body when Sara's hand found its way to the small of her back as they descended the front steps. She filed away that particular reaction for later thought and let Sara lead her over to her dark motorcycle. Sara picked a helmet up from the back and passed it toward Felicity deliberately.

"Seriously," she told the tech with a stern look. Her face was completely stern and unwavering as she held the helmet out to Felicity. "I really don't want to have to explain to Ollie, Digg, and _my dad_ why I brought you to the hospital with your head facing backwards, instead of getting you home safely. And riding with you unprotected is just _tempting_ fate."

Felicity huffed indignantly. "_I_'ve been the one saving _you_ lately, and you think my accident proneness is cute," she accused pettily.

Sara's features softened. "Not when it puts you in serious danger," she replied.

Felicity simply took the helmet from the other blonde's hands and popped it onto her head. "There," Felicity said. "See? Safe and sound, no tempting fate." Sara flushed at her unintentional innuendo.

A crooked half-smirk quirked Sara's face as a climbed onto the motorcycle. "Thanks," she muttered, pulling her own helmet snug over her head. She kick started the motorcycle and grabbed the handlebars more firmly. She turned her head to look at Felicity, "I'm still keeping my eye on you though."

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't," Felicity returned loudly, before realizing how that had sounded. "I mean–"

"Just get on," Sara told her humorously. She offered her hand to Felicity for balance and Felicity took it quickly, following Sara's instructions and getting onto the motor bike. Sara situated Felicity's arms in a firm grip around her waist, all while being mindful of Felicity's injured hand. When she was satisfied that Felicity's arms were secure enough to hold her, she turned her head to be audible as she said, "Just hang onto me, okay? Stay close."

"Don't worry. I'm pretty content right where I am," Felicity assured her.

Sara couldn't see the other woman's face, but she was pretty sure Felicity was blushing as the double entendre of her statement registered in her mind. She was slightly disappointed to have missed it. She loved Felicity's blush.

The streets were quiet at three in the morning in Starling City, even in The Glades. They wove their way through the deserted streets, hitting not so much as a red light on their journey, and Felicity noticed that Sara was careful to keep pretty close to the speed limits for once. The air was bone-chilling, and Felicity spent most of the trip hugging close to Sara with her helmeted head resting against Sara's back, blocking the wind. Halfway to Felicity's apartment, she felt Sara guide each of her hands into the hero's pockets, further protecting her from the cold.

She was grateful for Sara's warmth, but – and if anyone had asked her, she would have blushed profusely and denied it – Felicity mostly enjoyed the opportunity to experience having her arms wrapped around Sara's strong and solid body. The way Sara's abdominal muscles flexed occasionally, the way the muscles of her back flowed when they took a turn, the poise she seemed to wear like a second skin. Felicity knew that this was the closest she would ever get to being intimate with Sara.

Though she felt slightly guilty for taking advantage of the situation, it didn't stop the thrill that shot through Felicity's body whenever fate afforded her these opportunities.


	11. Transitions

**A/N: Just wanted to let everyone know how appreciative I am for all the follows and reviews, and for suffering through the slow burn. I've mapped out the story and we'll get some serious Smoaking Canary in chapter 14, so we're almost there I promise! When they get together, it's going to be fast and intense. Also, let me know your opinions on having an M-rated chapter in the future. For now, keep reading! Thanks!**

* * *

–Transitions–

**It** was a few days later and things seemed to be getting back into full swing for Team Arrow. A whole new week had brought with it a whole new catastrophic mystery, and Felicity and Diggle were forced the shelf their research into A.R.G.U.S.'s elusive 'Dark Archer II' to focus on the mayhem at hand. There had been three armed robberies all of which involved the 'accidental' death of a police officer, and while the police were investigating it, the team had begun looking into it themselves. It was a job that hit close to home, especially for Laurel and Sara, who were worried about their father's safety, as Chief Lance had unofficially appointed himself the primary investigator of the cases.

Felicity had dropped everything else to put all her focus on getting ahead of whoever was killing cops in the city and find the link between the three dead policemen. She worked both from the protective proximity of the precinct and from the foundry depending on where she was needed most at any given time. She wanted to catch this guy, if not for Laurel and Sara, than for herself.

She had her own relationship with Quentin Lance now. They had grown close and worked with in tandem, but it was more than that. As ridiculous as it might sound to anyone else, Felicity had never had a steady father-figure before, and she had found that figure in Chief Lance, who was perhaps the steadiest man she had ever met. She envied the Lance sisters for this reason especially.

The first thing Oliver said when he walked into the lair Saturday morning was, "Felicity, have you found anything?"

It had been expected, but Felicity groaned at the question all the same. "Only that the bullet shows no indication that the shot was fired from any particular direction or anywhere near where the robberies took place," she told him. Letting out a frustrated sigh, Felicity rubbed her temples like she always did when she was stressed. "I even had Lyla check with Waller to verify that Floyd Lawton was in lock down during all three occurrences. Aside from Deadshot, I've never seen anyone be able to fire a shot this way. "

"Was he?" Oliver questioned.

"Yes," Felicity answered tersely. "There's no trail for me to track. Meanwhile, every second I spend _not_ figuring this out is another second that every cop in Starling City is out there walking around with a target on their backs."

She dropped her head into her hands and rubbed her temples in frustration.

"Felicity, you're remarkable. We've never come across a problem that you haven't been able to solve," Oliver told her supportively. "This one is no different."

"I know that," Felicity replied. "It's just . . . It's like these bullets are bending to the shooter's will or something." A second later, Felicity's whole body froze and her head popped up abruptly. "Maybe that's it."

"Maybe _what_'s it, Felicity?" he pressed.

Oliver felt like Felicity's train of thought had departed and left him in the dust and, though he ordinarily would have just trusted her to run with her idea, she had been taking on a lot lately. If he could help, then he wanted too. However, it seemed that Felicity was already rolling full steam ahead.

"I've been going through some of A.R.G.U.S.'s more . . . _private_ files recently, and, at some point, I came across _this_," Felicity said, pulling up design blueprints for a specialty bullet from the Weaponized Warfare files of the Research and Development Division. "It's a high-caliber bullet that can be remotely controlled to search and find any target within a half-mile radius of its firing point. Basically, it's a drone, only tinier and much, _much_ more target-specific. Its use was being researched as an alternative to drone strikes," Felicity explained. "A way to take out the intended target without the collateral damage of taking thousands of innocent lives in the process."

Oliver looked more closely at the files on Felicity's computer screens. "It says here, though, that it never made it to the 'development' stage of 'research and development'," Oliver pointed out. "Do we know whose design it was?"

Uh . . . give me a second," Felicity said, typing away at her keyboard with lightning fast strokes. "And go! Dr. Rudolf Limerick, PhDs in Physics, Technology, and Mechanical and Technical Engineering. _And . . ._" – with a dramatic flourish of her fingers, Felicity brought up a second document –"it looks like the cost of education for those degrees was paid in full with a GI Bill, compliments of the U.S. Armed Services for two tours served overseas."

"Any idea where we can find Dr. Limerick?"

Felicity continued searching on the computer for a moment. "Oh. Whoa," she remarked, staring at the newest document she had found. She turned her head toward Oliver, who was looking back at her expectantly. "Limerick was fired from A.R.G.U.S. one month ago after suffering a psychotic break, during which he revealed himself as a radical extremist with pro-anarchy ideologies and delusions of promoting the human race to desiccate itself via global warfare. The psychiatrist's report tells all about Limerick's beliefs that humanity is a slight on the planet that can only be righted by being 'reborn by the fire and rebuilt from the ashes'."

Oliver looked right at her. "You're making that up," he guessed with a straight face.

"I'm not," Felicity negated. "Read for yourself. It's all right here in plain old black-and-white. He's a nutcase, and what's worse: he's recognized as having an eidetic memory."

"Which means . . ?"

Felicity looked at Oliver with unease. "Which means that if he's seen or read something, he won't soon forget it. With an eidetic memory, Limerick wouldn't have even needed to steal these bullet blueprints, he would have been able to recreate them from a picture in his mind," Felicity explained. "We're dealing with a mad genius."

* * *

"**So** these robberies were . . were what? Diversions?" Chief Lance asked of Felicity. He planted his hands on his hips in a defensive posture as he paced the length of his office.

"Worse. They were traps," Digg explained from where he stood next to Felicity. "The robberies were meant to lure your officers in. It's rudimentary guerilla tactics."

"And since the police are mandated to answer distress calls, they had no choice but to walk right into the line of fire," Felicity added. "Although, technically in this case there _was no_ line of fire. A group of uniformed officers trying to stop a robbery without anyone getting hurt, though . . . it would be like shooting fish in a barrel, sir. All he needed was to gather them all together and the bullet was bound to hit one of them."

Lance continued his pacing and Felicity had to look away. She was beginning to get motion sickness and she wasn't even the one moving. She couldn't image what the Chief was going to feel like when he finally stopped and stood still.

"So how do we stop this guy? And how do I keep my guys from getting shot in the meantime?" Chief Lance demanded.

Felicity stepped forward. "Luckily the tech used in these bullets means that they're programmed by a computer, and a program like that, especially when it's still in the early stages of its development, can be hacked," she explained. "If I can trace the signal back to its point of origin, we can find our shooter."

"As for the officers, Chief Lance, I'd put out an order for all responding law enforcement to be wearing Kevlar and helmets when they step out of the precinct," Digg told him. "Just as a precaution."

"That mean your vigilante crew is going to take down this Limerick guy?" Quentin asked.

Felicity knew how bad Lance wanted this cop killer to be brought down by the actual authorities, but she also knew that he would be willing to allow them to handle it if it meant protecting the lives of those who protected and served under him. It was a difficult compromise for him to come to. Felicity wondered vaguely if it would ever get easier for Mr. Lance to be a third party to a rag-tag team of archers, assassins, rogue agents, veterans, and tech specialists. From where she was standing right now, she very much doubted it.

"It's the safest option, sir," she answered him. "Limerick's not after vigilantes, he's after uniformed officers and police officials."

Lance nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, well, let's just hope he doesn't have a change of heart," he remarked grimly. Quentin looked to Digg. "Mr. Diggle, if I could just have a word with Felicity for a moment . . ."

"Of course," Digg replied respectfully. To Felicity he added, "I'll be at the car." She nodded her acknowledgment and he left, closing the door behind him.

Chief Lance leaned back against the front of his desk and looked at Felicity. "Be straight with me, Smoak," he told her. "How dangerous is this lunatic?"

Felicity took a few steps forward and stood in front of one of the chairs but didn't sit down. "You've heard the stories of the Gotham City criminals?" she asked. Lance nodded. "Limerick would fit right in with them. He's a textbook radical extremist, terrorist, psychopath. He's lost himself in this delusion where all that stands in between the world as it is now and a utopian universe is the annihilation of the human race as a whole, and he can't be dissuaded or convinced otherwise. On a scale of one to Doomsday, I'd put him at a human atom bomb."

"You don't seem too afraid to take this guy on," Lance noted.

Felicity sighed. "I'm tired of being afraid," she admitted, "but yeah, I'm kind of freaking out on the inside. Luckily I know more about him than he knows about me. That'll give me a little bit of an edge. All we need is for you to let the unies know that this isn't going to be a real emergency, we're just trying to call this guy out. That being said, they should still treat it like they would any other call."

Lance nodded, looking like he still wasn't entirely convinced. "You be careful now, you hear?" he told her. "No more buildings caving in on you or shots to the chest or dives into the harbor."

"I'll see what I can do, sir," she agreed, smiling at his concerned face. It reminded her so much of Sara's.

Just as Felicity walked to the door and was about to leave, Lance called after. "Felicity?" She turned around to look at him and he continued, "You'll keep an eye on our girl right? A close one?"

Felicity smiled. "Always."

. . .

Back at the car, when Felicity climbed into the passenger seat, John looked at her and asked, "What did Lance say to you?"

Looking out the window to avoid John's gaze, Felicity schooled the soft smile out of her features and answered, "Nothing. Nothing at all."

* * *

**It** didn't take long to pull everyone together, and before they knew it, they were all back in the Arrowcave going over the plan. Digg and Roy were standing next to each other looking every bit the part of the robbers they were pretending to be. Oliver was pacing the center of the foundry in his green hood and mask looking brooding and dramatic just as he always did before they were about to make a move. Thea had followed his example, donning her yellow hooded cardigan and painting red around her eyes. Sin was sitting in Felicity's computer chair while Felicity was leaning against her worktable with Sara sitting atop it at her side. It felt strange and yet completely natural and reassuring to all be together and back to their old tricks again.

"Digg and Roy are going to stage a robbery. When the cops show up, I'm betting the opportunity is going to be too good for Limerick to pass up and he's going to fire a shot," Oliver explained. "Felicity will hack into the bullet's programming. Sin will have to simulate the bullet continuing its intended trajectory so that we don't tip off Limerick before Felicity can get a lock on his location. Sara, Thea, and I are each going to be at a designated point within the half-mile radius so that at least one of us gets to him before he drops off the grid again. Once Felicity is able to locate him, she and Sin will redirect the bullet to a safe target."

"Hack a government-grade computerized bullet and trace its signal back to the origin point in under twenty-six seconds?" Felicity began sarcastically. "Yeah, no pressure. Piece of cake."

"Hey," Sara said, leaning to the side to bump against Felicity's shoulder, causing Felicity to look up to her. "We all know you can do this. But if it gets to be too much and you feel like you can't, just tell us. Sin will put the bullet in a safe zone, and we'll come up with a Plan B. Okay?" She gave Felicity a reassuring one-armed hug. "Don't be nervous."

"Too late," she told Sara.

Oliver looked at her. "Just stick to the plan and do what you do best and everything will work out," he said to her. "Remember, Felicity, you're remarkable."

Sara tried to stop herself from frowning and glaring at Oliver, but she knew she wasn't doing a very good job of it when she looked back to Felicity and Felicity was looking at her questioningly. The Canary just shook her head dismissively and refocused herself. Digg and Roy were already on their way up the stairs and Oliver and Thea were packing up to head out. Sara jumped down from the table and landed agilely to her feet to follow them, but she felt a hand on her arm stop her. She turned her head to look at Felicity.

"Please be careful," Felicity told her. She tried to joke, but her eyes held a troubled look. "You're only allowed one near-death experience biweekly. It's my new rule. Non-negotiable."

Feeling herself smile despite the seriousness of Felicity's request, Sara grabbed Felicity and pulled her into a tight hug. "No near-deaths until next week, got it," she reaffirmed. Sara noticed Felicity look down a little forlornly, and she put a finger under Felicity's chin to lift her head once more and draw her gaze. "Hey, you do your thing and I'll do mine, we'll take this guy down, and I'll be back before you know it. Safe and sound."

* * *

"**Is** it awful that I'm hoping he's located anywhere _but_ in Sara's zone?" Felicity asked Sin as her fingers flew across the keyboard, trying to track down the IP address Limerick was using.

The teen, who had been staring at her watch and counting backwards from twenty-six, kept her eyes fixed on the timepiece. "If my girlfriend had a one-in-three chance of being the first to go up against a super smart raging lunatic, I'd probably be hoping chance didn't fall into her thirty-three-percent too," Sin replied nonchalantly.

Just as they reached t-minus five seconds, Felicity's computer finally locked onto the origin point and generated a location. "Sin, put the bullet in Farris Pond!" she yelled. "I've got the location: 1855 Commerce Street!"

"He's in my zone!"

Felicity's heart plummeted when she looked at the map of Oliver, Sara, and Thea's three sectors. Evidently fate really hated her today, she thought, because Limerick was located in Sara's zone. Felicity glanced up at the computer generated city grid with the team's respective dots showing where they were located. By the look of things, The Canary was already en route and moving fast. Felicity was just about to remind Sara to be careful and stay on-target when the sound of the motorcycle engine and honking car horns stopped abruptly, only to be replaced with crackling static.

"Sara?" she asked, waiting for a reply back. All she heard was the sound of another motor bike go silent, and then the third one as well and everything grew completely silent. "_Sara?_ Oliver? Thea?!" She looked up at the city grid and saw that Sara's dot, as well as Oliver's and Thea's, had dropped off the grid. She looked at Sin and pointed to her ear, "Can you hear me? Not _me_ me. I mean, my voice on the the comm- me?"

Sin nodded and pointed to her screen that showed the three heroes' communication devices had all gone offline. "Sara's connection got cut off first. Ollie and Thea went radio silent after that."

Felicity put her elbows on her desk and dropped her head into her hands, groaning loudly. "I _hate it_ when they do this," Felicity ground out. She turned her head to the side and locked eyes with Sin, "And Sara _is not_ my girlfriend! Don't even try it, kid! I'm onto you."

Sin looked substantially chastised and her face turned into a scowl. "But I'm Team Felicity–!" she argued.

"Uh-uh!" Felicity cut her off. She pointed a stern finger at the teen. "_No_."

The young girl glared at her before turning back to the screens and muttering, " 'Still Team Felicity."

* * *

**Sara** kept half of her promise. She was back before Felicity knew it; mostly because Felicity was left completely clueless after their comm connection was lost. The 'safe and sound' part however, was really up for argument as Sara walked into the lair with Oliver and Thea, pressing gauze to her shoulder and bicep. Felicity had just been about to yell at them for losing communication and not contacting her some other way sooner, but she apparently decided her chastisements could wait until later when Sara wasn't spouting blood.

"What happened?" Felicity asked as Sara jumped up on the table and Thea brought the med kit over to Oliver. "The last thing I heard was Sara saying she was the closest to Limerick's location and then I lost all of you."

"Limerick must have jammed the signal," Thea said, "because we couldn't hear each other either."

"And Sara went off book," Oliver ground out angrily, cleaning the perforation on Sara's shoulder and the graze on her bicep.

"Oh spare me the hypocrisy, Oliver!" Sara snapped. "You would have done the same thing!"

"Chasing after a man with a gun who had already killed three people – policemen, no less – when you're unarmed, is reckless and stupid!" Oliver scolded her loudly.

Thea came over to stand next to Felicity as they watched the two heroes bicker incessantly. If Oliver had been a cartoon character, there would have been steam coming out of his ears, and Felicity caught onto the glint in Sara's eyes like she was contemplating all the different ways she could literally kill Oliver with her bare hands. In a different context, it might have been funny, but with every traded retort and retaliation, things seemed to escalate between them.

"They've been doing this since we caught Limerick," Thea told Felicity, her eyes never leaving her brother and Sara.

Felicity turned to look at her. "In the state they're in, I can't believe either of them were actually able to _take down_ Limerick."

Thea shook her head. "They didn't. My first shot knocked the gun out of Dr. Crazy's hand, then I fired a bola arrow and he went down," she explained. A proud smile pulled at the corners of her lips. "I took down my very first bad guy."

"How did it feel?" Felicity asked her knowingly.

"Badass," Thea answered with a devilish grin.

"DAMMIT, OLIVER!" Sara finally screamed. She reflexively jerked away from the needle Oliver was using to stitch her up. If _Sara_ – of all people – had reacted to the pain, then Felicity knew Oliver must have really stabbed her.

"_O-KAY_!" Felicity told them in a yell. She crossed the room and walked over to the two, looking at them the way a mother looked at her children when they had been bickering. "_Oliver_," she began with barely concealed impatience, "you should go take a shower and put on your other suit, because you have a dinner with Maxwell Meyrfield from the board of investors. _I_ will finish stitching Humpty Dumpty here " – she tilted her head toward Sara – "back together again." She looked over her shoulder at their newest hero. "Thea, sweetheart, do you think you could go check in at the precinct and have Chief Lance let Roy and Digg out of lock-up please?" Felicity asked, being pointedly sweet and polite to the younger Queen.

Thea was trying to hide her quiet laughter as she answered, "Sure." She looked at her older brother and friend with a smug face. "This is why I'm the favorite," she told them proudly.

Frowning deeply, Oliver looked at Felicity with betrayal. "I thought _I_ was your favorite!"

From her seat on the tabletop, Sara swung her foot into Oliver's knee. She scoffed. "_Please_, everyone knows that I've been the favorite since I joined up," she declared with a practiced cockiness.

"Stop," Felicity told them with an amused smile. "As much as I'm kind of loving being fought over, you guys know that I love you all _equally_. Now," – she looked at Thea – "you, to the precinct." Thea walked off to retrieve their missing members. "_You_" – she looked at Oliver – "shower, dinner party, schmoozing, go! The fate of our future company depends on it!" Oliver ambled away toward the showers. "And _you_,"– Felicity turned toward Sara, who was still sitting sheepishly atop Felicity's desk.

"Before you saying anything," Sara began loudly, "I would just like to say that I _tried_ to be careful. A very conscious effort was put into it. Oliver's _totally_ embellishing!"

Felicity remained unmoved and unconvinced.

"Did you chase after Limerick when you knew he had a gun?" she asked reasonably.

Sara lowered her head a little. "Yes."

"And were you unarmed at the time?"

"Well, technically, but–"

"And am I or am I not stitching up your multiple gunshot wounds as we're having this conversation?"

"You are," Sara relented defeatedly.

They were quiet for a few minutes while Felicity continued the sutures that Oliver had started on Sara's bicep. Sara hated the silence between them as it stretched on for what seemed like an eternity, until Felicity finished stitching up the angry graze on the outer part of Sara's upper arm and wrapped it in gauze. The younger woman looked up at Sara with her lips pressed into a thin line and an unreadable look in her pale blue eyes. Then Felicity ran her hand down the graceful slope of Sara's neck and gently swept Sara's bra strap off her shoulder. Sara knew that the sole purpose of Felicity pushing aside the bra strap was to give the tech better access to the perforation just under Sara's collarbone, but there was something that felt distinctly intimate about the action and the caring way in which it was done. Sara suddenly felt very exposed, sitting in front of Felicity without a shirt, the other girl's breath ghosting over Sara's chest as she took a closer look at the wound.

"Another three millimeters higher and that bullet would have shattered your collarbone. You're lucky it didn't tear any major arteries, Sara," Felicity told her with a certain tone in her voice that Sara couldn't quite distinguish. She could, however, hear the disapproving choler.

"Are you extremely mad?" Sara asked softly as Felicity began suturing her shoulder.

"No," Felicity answered.

It wasn't a complete lie. Felicity wasn't really _mad_ per se. She didn't really have a right to be, she kept reminding herself. After all, Sara wasn't actually _hers_ to be mad at. Oliver may not have had an issue with yelling at Sara for her recklessness like an over-protective boyfriend or husband, but after Felicity's out-of-line overreaction to Sara's near-drowning at the docks last week, she never wanted to feel that much fear and anger and resentment and loss and genuine _love_ for Sara so violently again. As much as it wasn't Oliver's place to be mad at Sara, it really wasn't Felicity's either.

"Felicity," Sara said to regain the other woman's attention. When Felicity looked up and their eyes met, Sara asked her, "Tell me the truth. It's okay if you are."

"No, it's not," Felicity told her firmly, tying off the thread she had used to stitch Sara's wound and cutting the line. "I don't want to be mad at you," Felicity confessed quietly. "Not like I was last week when you nearly drowned. That was . . . _I_ . . was out of line. Screaming at you and shoving you like that was wrong, and I don't even know what came over me. I completely overreacted." She poured iodine onto the stitched wound and wiped antibiotic ointment on after it, before placing a few gauze sheets over the wound and putting tape over the four sides it hold it there. Her eyes rose to meet Sara's gaze. "I'm not usually a violent person, and I _hate_ abuse in any form. I saw and heard too much of it when I was growing up, and I promised myself that I would never let myself be a part of that again." Before Sara could even register the tears welling in Felicity's eyes, she had cleared her throat and pushed them back. "You were just trying to save my life because you thought I was in trouble, and you didn't deserve the way I treated you."

Understanding reflected from Sara's eyes. "You scared yourself," she realized aloud. Felicity averted her gaze but Sara kept on looking at her, slowly putting the pieces together in her mind. "You never talk about your family. You don't talk about them because you don't know what to say. Because you don't have anything good to say." The more Sara thought aloud, the more Felicity seemed to withdraw inside of herself, so Sara stopped speaking about it. "You may have scared yourself, Felicity Smoak, but you did not scare me," Sara told her. She took Felicity's hand, drawing the girl's eyes back to her. "I know who you are. I know _how_ you are, Felicity. You would never hurt me. And not just because I'm a former-ninja assassin and you're a genius computer specialist," she added to give some levity to the conversation. "You got angry because I had just scared the hell out of you. You didn't overreact, Fliss."

Felicity took a deep breath and nodded. "I just really wish you would be more careful out there," the younger girl said.

"I know. I really am sorry," Sara replied.

Shaking her head, Felicity argued, "No. No, you don't have to be sorry." She paused. "I just . . . I worry about you, Sara. That's all."

Sara felt her heart flutter a little at Felicity's soft-spoken admission, but before she could respond, Felicity was taking Sara's hands delicately in her own and helping her down off the table. As Sara dropped to the floor, the tin tray that Oliver had put Sara's removed bullet into clattered to the floor as well. When Felicity bent to pick it up, she stopped.

She took the bullet in her hand and looked more closely at it. "It's rubber," she said. "And it's shaped like a queen."

"What?" Sara asked bewilderedly.

Felicity stood up, subtly slipping the bullet into her pocket. "Uh, nothing," Felicity answered offhandedly. The tech-girl went over to her desk and grabbed one of the spare button-down shirts she kept in her drawer, before walking back to Sara and drawing it around the older blonde's shoulders. "There," she said as Sara slipped her arms into the sleeves and Felicity buttoned up a few of the buttons. "Come on. Let's go home."

A warm feeling spread through Sara when she heard Felicity refer to her apartment as 'home' instead of 'my place' or 'my apartment'. It was such a small thing, Felicity probably didn't even realize it, but to Sara, the thought of sharing a 'home' with Felicity, the thought of Felicity not even thinking anything of the fact that she was welcoming Sara to share her 'home', meant the world to the former castaway.

As they were leaving the foundry, Sara slipped her hand into Felicity's open one.

* * *

**The** next day, Felicity called Digg first thing and asked him to meet her at the pier and not to tell any of the others (except for Lyla, of course. Felicity didn't want _John's pregnant wife to think that she was making a move on Digg because that would be ridiculous and–_ she had cut herself off abruptly at that point). She was awake and on her way out before Sara even stirred, which was a small miracle since Sara was just now starting to not sleep with her eyes open (it had really freaked Felicity out the first time she saw it) . On the table in the livingroom, she had left a couple of aspirins and a cup of coffee set on the mug warmer within Sara's immediate reach. Felicity snuck out the door, down the stairs, and out to her car and she set off for the pier.

There were already people out on the pier, jogging or casting out fishing lines or just enjoying the view, when Felicity got there and started looking for Digg. She spotted him leaning against the safety rail and looking out across the waves that shimmered in the early morning sunlight. Her heels clacked on the wooden planks as she made her way over to him. He must have heard her coming, because when she leaned against the wood wharf rail next to him, he took a moment before he looked to the side to see her.

"Morning," he greeted her, as if they were just meeting for brunch or something equally mundane.

"Hey," she replied tensely.

Digg kept looking at her expectantly. "So what's with the secret-spy-rendezvous routine?" he asked, cracking an amused smile. Felicity reached into her bag and pulled out the bloodstained rubber bullet and set it on the flat top of the rail. Diggle looked from the rubber object to Felicity quizzically. "You want to play a game of chess?" he jested. "Kind of hard with only one piece."

"That's the bullet that Limerick put in Sara yesterday," Felicity told him with complete seriousness. She waited for his reaction and he didn't disappoint.

"That's a _bullet_?!" Digg questioned incredulously.

Felicity nodded tightly. "Sara was hit right here," – she indicated the spot on her own chest – "right below her clavicle. I was wondering why a bullet that was shot at point-blank range and never hit bone wouldn't go right through her or at least in deeper. Then I saw it and I knew. Limerick wasn't shooting to kill, he was sending a message."

"Could this whole thing have been a test?" Digg theorized. "He designs a crime that involves the death of police officers. The Canary's father is a police official and The Arrow and Co. have had a sort of alliance with a specific member of the SCPD since you joined us and started acting as a diplomat. He knows it'll draw our attention and we'll try to stop him, so he tests us to see what we're capable of and how we operate, like in a game of chess. The piece he used as a bullet to shoot Sara was a queen, as in Oliver Queen."

"But _why_ would he want to test us? And how would Limerick know that Oliver Queen is The Arrow and that Chief Lance is The Canary's father?" Felicity countered. She shook her head and leaned against the railing to look out over the choppy waters. "No. This is something bigger. Limerick isn't the king, he's just a pawn. Someone else is calling the plays here."

Diggle studied his friend for a moment before he spoke, "You think you know who it is."

Felicity breathed in deeply and nodded once. "When I was going through the sealed A.R.G.U.S. files, I came across the documents and profiles of a smaller top-secret agency within the A.R.G.U.S. agency, similar to the Suicide Squad. This one deals mostly in intelligence and covert ops," she elaborated. After a short pause, Felicity turned her head to look at Diggle. "They call themselves Checkmate."

"You think they're trying to take us down?" Digg asked.

"No," Felicity answered, "but I think that bullet is their way of telling us that they've got their eye on us. And clearly they're not opposed to dropping innocent bodies to do so."

With a deep frown set in his face, Digg looked grim and wary. "Yeah, but for what reason?"

"That," Felicity said darkly, "is the part that worries me the most."

* * *

**That** entire rest of the day, Felicity's mind leapt between her morning discussion with Digg and her plans for Thea. With everything that had been set on the backburner or pushed to the side in the aftermath of Starling City's second tragedy in as many years, and now with the looming potential threats of a possible Merlyn-mimicker and now a secret cell sanctioned by the nation's most powerful government organization watching their every move, Felicity thought it might be conducive for Thea and the rest of them to have something positive to focus on in light of all the death and violence and chaos and corruption. Sooner or later, Felicity and Diggle were going to have to tell the rest of the team about Dark Archer II and Checkmate, but for the time being, Felicity felt like they needed some good news for a change. Luckily, good news was what Felicity had for them, and it couldn't have come more promptly. It just so happened that today had been the day that all of Felicity's hard-earned favors had paid off, and when she walked into the foundry that afternoon with a gift box in her hands, she had a smile a mile wide despite last night's grim revelation.

The boys were sparring on the mats when Felicity came in, and Digg's shock at seeing the smile on Felicity's face wound up losing him the match with Oliver. Laurel, who was spending her sacred Saturday sitting on a steel table in the sublevel of a closed down club, looked up at her and smiled knowingly (Laurel was the only person aside from Diggle who knew what Felicity had been plotting and Felicity had called her the moment she closed the deal with the shareholders). Sara was laying down across the steel table with her feet in her sister's lap, tossing a tennis ball up and catching it in her good hand, while all the other tennis balls in the foundry were being thrown in the air by Sin, who was watching with amusement as Roy and Thea competed to see who could put the most arrows through the lime green spheres as they fell and bounced against the floor. By the color of the arrow fletchings, Thea appeared to be winning so far, as her red-and-yellow checkered arrows were pinning dozens of tennis balls to the wall already.

"Thea!" Felicity called to the younger girl. "I've got something for you." She raised the box in her hand and waved it.

Though she looked confused, Thea smiled a little. "You know my birthday was weeks ago, right?" she questioned.

Felicity shrugged as she handed Thea the box. "We were all scattered and reeling still. We never really celebrated, and I just managed to acquire this today," she explained. "So open it."

Eyeing Felicity with playful suspicion, Thea took the box from the tech's hands and lifted the lid. When she looked inside, she saw a single piece of paper that looked like a legal document of some kind. Thea lifted the paper from the box, giving Felicity a wary look.

"Felicity, was is this?"

"Read it," Felicity answered.

Still looking wary and cautiously, Thea looked down to the document and read aloud, "'Quit Claim Deed. On April 2nd, 2014, the grantors: Elias Orville Barnes, Victor H. Foxx III, Virginia Lowell Foxx, Martin Aldren Mansfield, and George Matthew Sumner, respective shareholders of Properties of Queen Consolidated, for an in consideration of: One Dollar plus services rendered and other good and valuable consideration coveys, releases, and quit claims to the grantees: Thea Dearden Queen, primary grantee, and Oliver Jonas Queen, secondary grantee, the following described real estate situated in Starling City, County of Starr, State of California: 10,000 square-foot decommissioned foundry estate situated on 1.7 square-acres of land, which is commonly known as: 411 Mill Street, Starling City, California, 98765," Thea read. She glanced up to meet Felicity's eyes with a bright smile before she continued reading.  
"Grantors do hereby grant, bargain, and sell all of the Grantors' rights, titles, and interests in and to the above described property and premises to the Grantees and Grantees' heirs and assigns forever, so that neither Grantors nor Grantors' heirs, legal representatives or assigns shall have, claim or demand any right or title to the property, premises, and appurtenances or any part thereof. Subscribed and sworn this 2nd day of April, 2014'." By the time Thea had reached the end of the document, she had figured out what this piece of paper was and what it implied. "Signed by all five of the joint owners with Walter Steele and Felicity Smoak as witnesses."

Everyone was quiet as Thea processed what she was holding in her hands, and then her eyes found Felicity's face again. "You got me back my club? How–? What–?" she stammered.

"I did a lot of people a lot of favors," Felicity answered nonchalantly. "I'm pretty sure that's what they mean by 'plus services rendered'. There's also a private loan agreement for a sufficient amount of money to restock and reopen that you'll need to sign with Walter. He trusts you, of course, but it's just smart to have all business agreements properly documented."

Thea gaped at her. "You got me my club back?" She was visibly touched by the lengths Felicity had clearly gone to in order to make this happen for Thea.

"It's a lot of work," Felicity said, "but I think you can handle it– that _we_ can handle it. _Plus_, you've already got a ready-made bartender." Felicity cast her eyes toward Sara, who looked every bit as excited as Thea did.

Unexpectedly, Thea threw her arms around Felicity and pulled her into a hug. "Thank you! God, thank you so much, Felicity!" she cried. Thea held the paper in front of her as she walked over to stand between her brother and her boyfriend, then she slung an arm around each of their shoulders. "I've got my club back, I've got my guy back, I finally have my big brother being honest with me, and I've got an entire fully dysfunctional, dramatic, crazy, crime-fighting family looking out for me," Thea announced, looking around at all of them. "I think I might just be okay."

From across their circle of friends, Digg shot Felicity a look. They were both thinking about the ramifications that the Dark Archer II and Checkmate might have in store for them. Felicity wondered if maybe Thea had spoken too soon.


	12. Magnetic

**Thanks to everyone who was patient and supportive while I was stuck with my writer's block. Sorry it took so long, but here it is!**

* * *

–Magnetic–

* * *

**I**t took a little bit of time, quite a bit of money, and _a lot_ of work, but on the night of Verdant's grand reopening, Thea thought that every bit of it was worth it. She, Roy, Oliver, and Sara had been at the club since early that morning, mostly because they had to stop an armed robbery in progress at four am, (seriously, who decides to rob a casino at four in the morning?). After Thea had finished washing the red paint from around her eyes (she was starting to reconsider the mask thing, even if wearing one would ruin her peripheral vision even more than the hood already did), they had spent the better part of six hours getting everything ready and set up ("No, Ollie, Roy, not there! _There_!"). By noon, everything looked just as it had before they had been shut down and Thea was feeling pretty good about this evening's events.

They had decided to leave everything as it was and reconvene back at Verdant at five o'clock sharp. Roy had thrown his arm over Thea's shoulders and she had leaned into his body as they left the club, with every intention of collecting Sin from the clocktower and going back to Roy's place to sleep for the next four hours.

"So I haven't asked you yet," Thea said as they got into Roy's car, "what do you really think of sharing your one-time bachelor pad with two girls?"

As Roy was backing out of the lot, he replied, "I feel like there's no good way to answer that. Am I being tested?"

"Do you think you're being tested?" she questioned mischievously.

"Yes, actually, I do," Roy said as he wove through the crowded streets of The Glades. "But, to answer your question honestly, I really don't mind it. I mean, between Verdant and Team Arrow, we barely spend any time there, but when we do, it's cool not having to be alone all the time."

"Good," Thea answered simply. "I didn't want you to feel all . . . suffocated."

Roy glanced over to Thea in the passenger's seat. "I never feel suffocated by you. I just feel like I'm finally not alone anymore," he told her genuinely. "I love you, Thea Queen."

Thea rested her head against Roy's arm as they continued driving home, content with the fact that she was with Roy and she was loved. All the money in the world had never made her happier than this.

* * *

**L**aurel was eyeballs deep in depositions when she heard the knock on her door and she distractedly responded with a, "Come in."

When the door opened, Laurel looked up to see her secretary, Lisa, poking her head into the office. "DA Lance, there's a Mr. Queen here to see you," Lisa informed her promptly. "He says that it's urgent."

Shaking the haze of legal jargon that hadn't overwhelmed her this much since she passed her bar exams, Laurel nodded and forced a weak smile. "It's okay, Lisa. Please send him in," she answered politely.

Lisa nodded and ducked out of the room. A moment later, Oliver walked in with a brown bag in one hand and an arrangement of flowers in the other. His trademark charming smile was on his face, but there was a lightness to his posture and a patency in his eyes that Laurel couldn't ever remember seeing before. This man standing in her office looking so genuine and at ease, now completely devoid of the weight of all his secrets and lies, was not the footloose and careless boy who was lost on the Queen's Gambit, nor was he the distant, aloof, and emotionally unavailable man who had returned home five years later. Laurel realized that this man smiling back at her was the true man under the hood, free of the masks of The Arrow and playboy billionaire Oliver Queen. In a moment of absolute clarity, Laurel realized that Oliver was now the person she had only ever seen glimpses of before, in full.

"Hello, Laurel. These are for you." He handed her the flowers, which she set on her desk. "I hope I'm not disrupting you," Oliver began, "but your father mentioned you hadn't been eating much lately." He set the brown bag down on Laurel's desk and began taking dishes out. "So I got your favorites: avocado salad and chicken risotto from DiNozzo's, and a calzone supreme from Mario's."

Laurel had to laugh. "Oliver, this is enough food to last me the entire week."

As he was lifting the lid from the salad container and offering Laurel a fork, he replied, "Exactly. This way, even if you say no to my offer, I will know that you aren't starving yourself."

"Shouldn't you let me hear the offer before you give me the continental buffet?" Laurel quipped.

Oliver tilted his head in acquiescence. "Well, tonight is the reopening of Verdant, and I know that maybe inviting a newly recovered alcoholic to a bar opening might not be appropriate, but it would mean a lot to me and Thea if you came," he told her. "I won't be drinking, Thea and Sin aren't even legal to drink, Sara's going to be working most of the night so she's not going to drink and neither is Roy, Lyla is a pregnant alcohol-free zone for the next six to seven months . . . You'll be hanging out with all the cool sober kids."

Cracking a huge smile, Laurel nodded. "Okay, you've talked me into it!" she conceded. "Anyway, I could use a night out to blow off some steam. Being the stand-in DA is _not_ fun, actually it's making me hate being a lawyer, and I _love_ being a lawyer!"

Oliver laughed. "Okay. Great, then I'll see you at seven?"

Laurel nodded. "Seven o'clock," she agreed readily.

* * *

"**S**ara." In her drowsy state of oblivion, Sara could hear a light voice calling to her and someone gently shaking her shoulder. "Sara," the someone called to her again. Sara felt soft fingers tucking hair behind her ear as she soft drifted into consciousness. "Come on, sweetie. Time to wake up." She recognized the voice as Felicity's warm and slightly gravelly tone.

Sara opened her eyes to find herself laying on Felicity's couch having passed out hours ago. Felicity was sitting on the edge of the sofa beside her, looking down at her tenderly and with sympathy in her eyes. "I'm sorry to have to wake you," Felicity told her, "but it's almost four o'clock and I know Thea needed you back there by five."

"No, it's okay," Sara told her, sitting up. "I'm glad you did." She caught sight of the garment bag slung over the back of the armchair and a pair of killer high heels in Felicity's hand. "Are you going somewhere else?" she asked.

Felicity looked confused for a moment, until she followed Sara's line of sight to the garment bag and back to Sara's face. "Oh no," she answered. "There's just a few diagnostics I have to run on the foundry's computer systems. I'll just get ready there."

"So I'll see you at the club?" Sara asked.

Smiling, Felicity boldly leaned into Sara and kissed the corner of her mouth lightly. When she pulled back and looked Sara in the eyes, she answered, "I'll see you there."

Sara swore that when Felicity left out the door, she took a little piece of the Canary's heart with her.

* * *

**I**f there was one thing Felicity hated doing, it was lying to her friends. Unfortunately, Digg knew exactly how to play on this weakness.

"There's no reason why we shouldn't at least tell Oliver," Digg tried to reason with her.

"_Yes_, there is," she argued. "That reason being that we both know very well that Oliver will react impulsively and throw himself headlong into harm's way and wind up nearly getting himself killed and I _just_ managed to scrub out the bloodstains from the _last time_ he nearly got himself killed and almost bled out in here!" She gestured around the Arrowcave wildly. "Ergo, we are not telling anyone anything until we know for sure that Dark Archer II is even a real threat and not just some overenthusiastic fan of The Arrow or until we have more on Checkmate's inner workings."

"Felicity, if you keep going after these people the way you have been, you're the one who's going to get yourself killed," Digg told her, stepping to the opposite side of the desk and closing Felicity's laptop screen on her. She was about to protest indignantly when she caught the look on John's face. "Have you told _Sara_ about this?"

Felicity tried not to react to the question too obviously and gave Digg a look. "I just told you we're not telling anyone anything about this. Why would you think Sara would be any different?" she asked.

"Because Sara is always different to you," John replied smoothly. "Because you hate lying to Sara even more than you hate lying to the rest of them, because you love her."

"What?!" Felicity squeaked. "That is ridiculous! I'm not in love with Sara!"

Dig crossed his arms and smiled a satisfied smirk. "I never said anything about you being _in_ love with her," he pointed out.

"Well . . . good, because I'm not–"

"Felicity . . ." Digg told her in a warning voice.

"Okay, fine!" Felicity erupted, standing out of her seat. "Maybe I am! That doesn't change the fact that I'm not going to tell her anything about this until I have concrete facts and leads and-and maybe even a plan as to how to take these stupid idiots down!" The tech dropped back down into her seat and rubbed her temples. "I hate lying to them, Digg, and I know that they are going to be furious with me when they find out that I've been keeping all of this from them . . . but I'm scared of what they'll do once they know. Checkmate had a mad genius put a rubber chess piece bullet in Sara and letting anyone even possibly emulating Malcolm Merlyn come to Oliver's attention is a recipe to turn him back into a killer, neither of which I am particularly keen to see happen again. It kills me to lie to them, but if it keeps them alive, then so be it."

Digg tipped his head back and yelled toward the ceiling in frustration. "Fine, fine. You win this one," he relented, "but the whole reason I came down here was to make sure Oliver wouldn't come down to check to make sure you hadn't fallen into a computer coma and that you were still going to make an appearance upstairs, and catch you in the middle of all of this."

Felicity closed out of her pages, cleared her history, and turned off her monitors. "And I appreciate that, Digg. Now, I'm going to go get myself ready and make that appearance upstairs, and _you_ should go make sure your wife and unborn child are alright."

As Felicity traipsed off toward the lair showers and Digg turned toward the stairs, he muttered to himself, "There is no way that this ends well."

* * *

"**M**y God," Thea called over the loud sounds of blasting music and happy club-goers. "This is crazy!"

Sara threw a happy smile over her shoulder as she mixed a couple martinis for a flock of women sitting at one of the tables. "I know," she remarked back as Thea stepped to her side of the bar and she set the tray of drinks on the table for Roy to deliver. "If we squeeze any more people in this place somebody's going to have to call the fire marshal!"

The resident youngest hero threw her a devilish smirk. "And while that is also fantastic," Thea began bodingly, giving Sara a thorough once over, "I was referring to how completely hot and obvious you look right now."

"I don't know what you mean."

Turning to look at herself in the reflective chrome behind the bar, Sara tried not to let Thea's words get to her. So what if she had taken a full twenty minutes before she finally decided to wear her most flattering pair of skinny blue jeans and a shimmery black top that showed just the right amount of cleavage? Or if she had applied her make-up in such a way that made the green in her eyes pop and her eyelashes look darker and fuller? And if she had spent a little extra time making sure every individual hair on her head was just right? Maybe she just wanted to look good for Verdant's grand re-opening.

"_Please_," Thea scoffed. "I maybe be younger than you, but I wasn't born yesterday." She laughed, "You have got it _so bad_ for Felicity!"

Sara whipped her head around wildly. "_Jeez_, Thea! Tell the whole damn world why don't you?!" she snapped.

Thea's pale blue eyes lit up in triumph. "Ha! I knew it! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! You _looove_ her, You wanna _maarrry_ her, And have cute crime-fighting computer genius _babies_ with her ," Thea sang loudly and obnoxiously. " Sara and Felicity sitting in a tree K-I-S-S- –"

Sara picked up a dish towel sitting on the bar nearby. "Oh, knock it off! What are you?! Ten?!" she demanded, snapping the towel at Thea, who shrieked and jumped away from her.

Thea cackled, as if this whole ordeal was the most hilarious thing ever, but (thankfully for Sara) she didn't go back to singing like an elementary school girl on the play ground. "Why don't you just ask her out? Anybody with eyes can see that you two are crazy about each other," Thea remarked readily. "You look at each other with little hearts in your eyes," she added a little more mockingly.

"It's more complicated than that," Sara explained, refilling a drink for a requesting customer. "And Felicity doesn't feel that way about me."

"_WOW_," Thea responded loudly. "You know, I find it really interesting that the only two people who haven't realized you and Felicity are in love with each other are you and Felicity. I mean, even _Oliver_ sees it, and that's really saying something considering it took him, like, four months to realize I was dating Roy."

Sara's forehead crinkled in confusion. "How could he possibly have missed that?" she asked incredulously.

The knowing and slightly smug look that Thea gave Sara in response was answer enough. "Probably the same way that you've missed Felicity looking at you like you're the eighth world wonder– _Oh_! Hey, Felicity," Thea said loudly, her eyes widening with a flair of theatricality.

Sara crossed her arms over her chest. "Nice try, but that's _so_ not going to work, Speedy," Sara told her.

"Hey, Thea," Felicity replied from behind Sara just before the bartender felt a warm hand on her shoulder.

Thea was very obviously trying not to outright laugh at Sara, as the older woman tried to school her face back into composure, especially when Felicity asked, "What's not going to work?"

"It's nothing," Sara hastened to say, "just . . .". Sara trailed off as Felicity stepped into her line of sight. _Va va voom_, she thought, though she had the good sense not to say it aloud. "Wow," she breathed instead. "Felicity, you look–"

"_HOT_!" Thea cut in bluntly.

Sara was inclined to vehemently agree with the younger hero as she tried to stop her eyes from raking up the length of Felicity's figure. The tech was wearing a sinfully short, scarlet red dress that hugged her body in _all_ the right places, and a pair of high heels that made Felicity's already long legs seem to go on forever. Thick, blonde tresses spilled down from Felicity's updo and the younger woman's baby blue eyes were framed by long, dark, smoky eyelashes, and crystal clear without the barrier of glasses. When Felicity blushed at Thea's exclamation, Sara was pretty sure she couldn't breathe. Clearly someone had turned the thermostat _way_ up in the club.

"Thanks, Thea," Felicity mumbled sheepishly. She sat down on one of the barstools with grace and licked her lips a little self-consciously. Her eyes met Sara's solemnly as she said, "I think I could use a drink."

Nodding adamantly, Sara felt happy to have something to focus on aside from how completely turned on she suddenly felt. "Wine?" she asked Felicity, expecting an easy 'yes'.

"Whiskey sour tonight, actually," Felicity said instead. At Sara's widening eyes, Felicity elaborated, "It's been kind of a long day and I'm feeling a little adventurous."

As Sara began mixing Felicity's drink, she tried desperately not to think about what other types of 'adventurous' Felicity could be.

. . .

**V**erdant's grand reopening night was proving to be quite profitable by the time ten-thirty rolled around. Sara wasn't sure the club had even seen a night like this before it had been shut down, but it definitely felt good to be back in business. For the past half-hour, Sara had been goofing off, throwing liquor bottles up behind her back and catching them over her shoulder, spinning shakers, and mixing drinks with much more flair than was strictly necessary. She had even been showing Thea the ropes of bartending and Felicity had sat right at the bar with them all evening. Finally, Sara's curiosity won out when she placed Felicity's third drink in front of her (she wasn't sure if Felicity had caught on yet, but she had been mixing less and less alcohol into the other girl's drinks each time).

"So, not that I'm not _insanely_ grateful for your company tonight," Sara began, casting a coy look Felicity's way, "but why aren't you out there with the others?" She nodded her head to where Lyla, Laurel, and Digg were out on the dance floor. "I mean, you're the reason why Verdant is back in business."

Felicity shrugged her shoulders as she stirred her drink idly. "I'm not really what you would call a 'party' person," she answered simply. "I never really have been. I'm not all that great a dancer, and even in college, I was more into hard drives than hard drinks. Letting my hair down is not something that comes easily to me."

Sara smirked. "Is that so?" she questioned deviously. She turned her head to where she could see Thea lingering with Roy on the outside of the crowd. "Hey, Thea!" The girl turned her head in Sara's direction and the blonde asked, "You think you're ready for a trial run?" She gestured to the bar.

Thea glanced briefly between Sara and Felicity and grinned. "Hell yeah! Bring it on!" she said, striding confidently over to take Sara's place behind the bar.

"Great," Sara said. "We'll me right over there somewhere if you need me!" Sara grabbed Felicity by the hand, leaving Thea at the bar, and pulled the IT-girl onto the dance floor.

The steady beat gave Sara an artificial confidence as she pulled Felicity right into the thick of things, spun around, and placed one hand on the younger woman's hip. "Felicity Smoak," Sara began to declare, "I'm going to show you" – she reached up behind Felicity's head and swiftly pulled out the clip that had been holding Felicity's hair back, allowing the thick tresses to spill down the girl's shoulders beautifully – "how to let your hair down."

As laser beam blue eyes stared into hers, Sara grabbed Felicity by the hips and pulled her into her own body as she began rocking to the beat of the loud club music. At first, Felicity seemed awkward and unsure, until Sara ran her hands up Felicity's back and met her eyes. "It's okay," she assured her friend. "Don't think about it, just let go, follow me, and feel the beat. That's all there is to it, like when we first started training together."

A shiver ran down Felicity's spine at the gentle way Sara was caressing her back and the soft silkiness of her voice. She nodded a little disjointedly, raised her arms to wrap them around Sara's neck, and closed her eyes. She heard the music, pounding loud in her hearts and all around her. She felt Sara's warm body pressed impossibly close to hers, so close that if they had been any closer, they would have disproved the laws of physics. She smelled Sara's scent – green tea, orange citrus shower gel, rose petal perfume, and a little bit of tequila – as it wisped its way around her, encompassing Felicity as completely as Sara's arms had, and when she opened her eyes, she saw Sara's green gaze staring straight into hers. That is, until she could have sworn Sara's eyes had dropped down to her lips, just for the briefest of moments. She found herself wondering if all of this were a dream or a figment of her (admittedly, wild as of late) imagination.

"Sara–" she was about to say, right before Sara leaned in, and suddenly there was Thea's voice in the background.

"Hey, Lance, I'm not paying you to dance with your hot IT girl!" the youngest Queen yelled.

Sara held Felicity's eyes and body for another prolonged moment, before she was suddenly gone altogether. Felicity found herself alone on the dance floor, wondering what had just happened, and she now felt cold without Sara's warmth wrapped around her. All that was left of this perfectly confusing moment was the lingering scent of rose and oranges.

. . .

**A**fter the shock wore off, Felicity meandered her way over to where Laurel was sitting, watching Sara entertaining Thea and Sin at the bar with an animatedly told story. Felicity moved her head into Laurel's line of vision.

"What're you looking at?" Felicity asked, talking the seat next to Laurel.

Laurel looked like a woman who had just won the lottery, and she took a deep breath and sighed contentedly. "She's happy," Laurel commented, nodding toward Sara behind the bar. "I haven't seen her smile like that since she's been back. It's been like . . . like, she's not really alive, you know? Like _my_ Sara really was lost at sea, but looking at her right now . . . it's like something's brought her back to life again." She turned her head to look at Felicity. "It still amazes me, that after everything she's been through, she's survived and endured and become this beautiful and brave, heroic woman. She's incredible."

Felicity cast her gaze back toward the bar and she felt her heart melt at the sight of Sara with her head tipped back in laughter at something that Sin had said. "Yes she is," Felicity agreed emphatically, trying to keep her swooning to an unnoticeable minimum. She wondered idly how she had never realized how completely breathtaking it was when Sara's eyes crinkled at the corners and her cheeks dimpled when she smiled genuinely.

Laurel watched Felicity watch Sara with a lovesick expression. "So . . .," Laurel began preemptively.

Felicity's attention snapped back to the older Lance sister. " . . So . . ?" she questioned hesitantly, not quite sure what Laurel was expecting her to catch onto.

"What's going on between you and my sister?" Laurel asked point-blank.

It was a good thing Felicity had not decided to take a sip of her drink at that moment, because if she had, she undoubtedly would have choked on it. "Um . . What do you mean?" Felicity stammered.

The attorney rolled her eyes. "_Please_," Laurel stated. "She calls you cute _every_ chance she gets, you worry about her _incessantly_, she spends the majority of her nights at your apartment, and I don't tell me I'm imagining things! I've seen the looks exchanged across rooms and the hand-holding and the way the two of you always have to be in some form of contact with each other." Laurel gave Felicity an earnest kind of look. "I've seen the way she looks at you, Felicity."

Laughing uncannily, Felicity tried her very hardest not to look like a guilty party or pathetically pining loser. "Laurel, as great as all of that sounds," Felicity began slowly. "Sara is . . ." – she looked back to the bar at the girl she was falling hopelessly in love with – "_Sara_," she finished with reverence. "And I'm . . . just . . . _me_." Laurel gave her a dubious look, but Felicity simply continued on. "We're friends – _close_ friends – and that's it. Sara's going to want someone more . . . well, _more_." Felicity stared Laurel straight in the eyes, and she watched as the lightbulb turned on in Laurel's mind.

Laurel's eyes widened and she leaned in conspiratorially. "Oh my God. You're in love with her!" Laurel whisper-yelled.

Felicity didn't see the use in trying to deny it to anyone anymore. "Yes," she answered. Felicity looked across the room at Sara again. "But you can't tell her that, Laurel. I like the way things are now, with how close we are, how comfortable we are with each other. I love having her in my life more than anything, and I can't let that change because she thinks I'm getting too close to her, too personal, too attached, too . . . whatever." Felicity stopped and looked at Laurel. "As much as it hurts being with Sara and knowing that I'll never _be_ with Sara, _not_ being with her hurts even more."

Laurel was quiet for a long time, and Felicity had gone back to looking at Sara when Sara wasn't looking in their direction, when Laurel finally spoke. "Felicity?"

Turning her attention back to Laurel with a sheepish blush on her face, Felicity replied, "Yes?"

Looking more serious than Felicity could ever remember seeing her, Laurel continued with what she was going to say. "When you both finally wake up and realize that the two of you are obviously crazy about each other . . ." – she trailed off and bit her lower lip – ". . . I know that I don't have to tell you this, but just . . . don't hurt my sister, okay?" she requested.

Felicity looked surprised by Laurel's words, but she nodded adamantly. "Sara means the world to me, Laurel," Felicity told her, staring her straight in the eyes. "I would never, in million years, do anything to intentionally hurt her."

Laurel smiled softly. "I know that. That's why I said I knew I didn't need to tell you."

At that point in time, Oliver chose to sidle up to their table and rest his hand on the back of Laurel's chair. He sent them his most charming smile. "Ladies," Oliver greeted them. "Are you enjoying yourselves?"

They both looked at each other with suspicious looks before answering Oliver's question.

"Definitely," said Felicity.

"This is great," agreed Laurel, smiling up at their friend. "Thanks for dragging me out tonight."

"Anytime," Oliver confirmed with emphasis. After a moment, he continued, "I don't want to crash your conversation, girls, but, I'd like to ask Laurel to dance with me."

Laurel looked back to Felicity. "Oh, well, Felicity and I were–"

"Just concluding our conversation," Felicity finished. She smiled at Laurel and tipped her head toward Oliver. "Go," she told her friend. "Have fun. _I_" – she stood up from her seat – "think I need another drink after having our talk– _and_ I just realized how that must have sounded to a steadfast recovered-alcoholic." She sent Laurel an apologetic look. "I'm sorry."

Laurel just laughed. "Really, you guys, it's fine. _I_'m fine," she assured both Felicity and Oliver. "I'm having a great time, I'm carefree, I'm not stressed out, and I don't feel like drinking. But you know what I do feel like doing?" She turned to look at Oliver and finished, "_Dancing._"

Felicity laughed as Oliver gallantly offered out his hand and began pulling Laurel onto the dance floor. She could see Digg and Lyla working it out on the floor with all their goofy dance moves and not a care in the world as to who was watching. Even Sin had gotten out there and begun dancing with a perfect stranger who Felicity was definitely keeping a close eye on, despite knowing that there were six well-trained heroes doing the exact same thing. She tried to feel the same level of excitement as all of her friends, but her conversation with Laurel was weighing heavily on her mind and her heart.

"Why so glum, chum?" asked Sara as Felicity retook her previously vacated seat at the bar.

Plastering on the most genuine smile possible, Felicity answered, "No glum. Just . . . pensive, I guess."

Sara gave her an unconvinced look. "Uh-huh," she muttered. She set down the glass and the dishtowel in her hands and rested her elbows on the counter so she could lean across it. "You wanna try answering that again?"

"Not really," replied Felicity.

Sara frowned with concern. "Did Laurel say something to you? Because sometimes she can be kind of–"

"No. _No_," Felicity assured her friend, reaching her hand to rest on Sara's folded elbows without thinking about it. "Laurel's great. She's awesome." Felicity hadn't noticed the way she was absently stroking her thumb across Sara's forearm, but Sara definitely had, and she had to admit that she liked the attention and the contact. "My mind is just kind of busy right now," Felicity concluded, "which is exactly why I need another drink. Hit me, bartender!"

Clearly nonplussed, Sara laughed anyway. "What can I do you for, m'lady?" she asked with lighthearted humor.

"I'll take a shot of every liquor from vodka to tequila," Felicity told her.

Sara paused. "Whoa," she remarked. "Felicity, are you sure?" Sara's concern touched Felicity but she nodded.

Felicity pulled her keys out of her purse and set them on the bar confidently. "The beautiful blonde bartender that everyone in this club has been talking about all night? She's a close friend of mine. As long as she's around, I know I'll be okay." Felicity gave Sara a warm, reassured smile.

Sara returned Felicity's smile before taking out four shot glasses and setting them in front of her younger friend. The bartender picked up a couple liquor bottles and spun them around before pouring them into the glasses. "Vodka, bourbon, whiskey, and tequila, as requested," Sara announced, picking Felicity's keys up off the bar. "But, just so you know, I think that this is a horrible idea."

"Noted," Felicity returned as she knocked back the first of many shots that night.

* * *

**A**s Sara stumbled through the hallway of Felicity's apartment half-carrying a blissfully drunk and deadweight Felicity on one side and the keys to the apartment in her other, she was beginning to regret her decision to allow Felicity to get herself sloshed like it was St. Patrick's Day in June. It wasn't that Felicity was a mean or angry or emotional or even an obnoxious drunk, although the alcohol had certainly made her a little sillier than usual. It was just that Felicity was kind of a _touchy_–_feely_ drunk, and not that Felicity's advances were _at all_ unwanted by Sara, but it was becoming increasingly more and more difficult for Sara to restrain herself and to not take advantage of Felicity and show her just how _wanted_ her advances really were.

"Come on, baby," Sara said as she fit the key in the lock, pushed the door open into the apartment, and began pulling Felicity into the livingroom. "Let's sit you down on the couch, okay? And I'll get you some aspirins and a glass of water and your PJs." As Sara was about to go do as she had said, Felicity latched onto her arm and Sara looked back.

"Don't leave me," Felicity begged in a heartbreakingly adorable plea.

Sara sat back down beside Felicity and pushed some hair out of her face. "I'm not leaving your, Fliss," she laughed softly, "but I want to take care of you. I'll be right back, I promise."

The fact that Felicity groaned and held onto Sara's hand for as long as possible until she fell to one side of the couch let Sara know just how far gone Felicity really was. The trouble was that Sara found it all inexplicably endearing. She had taken care of her fair share of drunk friends in high school and in college, and never before had she thought any of it was cute. Everything was different with Felicity and, best of all, it seemed so normal and natural. Taking care of Felicity wasn't something she had to think about, it came to her like second-nature.

She grabbed a couple aspirin (_actual_ aspirin this time), a glass of water, and Felicity's pajamas, and made her way back to the livingroom, only to find Felicity missing. "Fliss?" she called out. She heard a heaving sound coming from the bathroom and she knew all too well what it signified.

She held Felicity's hair away from her face while Felicity emptied her stomach of all the alcohol she had ingested that night. She knew from the stifled sobs and the unsteady shaking that Felicity was crying, but she waited until the bouts of nausea had passed and she had gotten a cold cloth to wipe the sheen of clammy sweat from Felicity's face before she asked about the tears. For several seconds, Felicity couldn't catch her breath long enough to form words, and Sara continued wiping the tears and moisture from Felicity's still-beautiful face while she waited patiently for an answer.

"I feel horrible and-and completely unattractive," Felicity cried when she could finally manage words.

"Oh, honey," Sara sighed both with sympathy and amusement. "It's okay, okay? I've been where you are, and I can say with certainty that I did not look half as pretty as you do now when it happened to me. I also didn't have an awesome friend to hold my hair back and tell me everything was going to be okay either, but you do." Sara held the back of Felicity's head as she kissed her forehead, before leaning back to look into Felicity's eyes. "You have got me, Felicity Smoak, and I'm not going anywhere. Now, if you're not feeling like you're going to throw up again, then let's get you up and get you into bed." Sara grabbed Felicity's arm and helped her to her feet. "And, for the record, I don't think there's any way in the world that you could look unattractive. You're beautiful, Felicity."

"Thank you," Felicity mumbled as she leaned heavily into Sara's side as the pair made their way into Felicity's bedroom. "Thanks," Felicity rasped tiredly again as Sara sat her down on her bed.

A small smile tugged at the corners of Sara's lips. "Anytime. Try putting your jammies on, okay? I think Laurel left the rest of the 7-Up we were using to make Shirley Temples the other day in our– uh, your fridge. I'll be right back."

As soon as Sara was out of the room, she smacked herself. It was a Freudian slip, implying that anything in Felicity's apartment was shared between them. As she pushed aside a few items in the refrigerator to get to the soda, she hoped that Felicity wouldn't remember much of this night in the morning. If it had been anyone else, Sara would have felt reassured that the entire night would be a black hole in Felicity's memory, but this was Felicity Smoak and the girl's mind was like a steel trap. Nothing got past her. She poured a glass of 7-Up and took a breath before going back into Felicity's bedroom to find her friend struggling to pull her loose-fitted MIT shirt over her head.

"Here," Sara told her, halting Felicity's frantically flailing arms and taking the collar of the fabric to bring it down around Felicity's head. When Felicity's head popped up through the hole, Sara smoothed back the girl's crazy messy, blonde hair. "There," she concluded as Felicity easily slid her arms through the sleeves.

"Sara, you're an angel," Felicity gushed, throwing her arms around Sara's neck and leaning into the older girl. "I know you don't think you are, but you are."

Felicity began swaying unsteadily on her feet as she looked at Sara, before she finally began falling to the side. Since the tech's arms had been around Sara's neck, the hero was being pulled down with her, until Sara managed to right them by planting her feet and catching one arm around Felicity's waist. There was a moment between them as Felicity regained her bearings and Sara realized the position she found herself in, that their faces were inches from one another's and they were sharing the same breath and the same look. Felicity lifted her fingers to caress Sara's cheek.

"God, you're beautiful," she whispered to Sara breathlessly, causing Sara's own breath to hitch.

It became physically painful for Sara to _not _be kissing this girl. She had never before felt so completely enraptured and entranced by someone, and had to execute such restraint and self-discipline. Even with someone as intriguing and mysterious as Nyssa, who had an entire league of international assassins ready to kill Sara if she so much as looked at the daughter of Ra's al Ghul wrong, Sara hadn't held back. She had done as she always had and jumped in head-first and, luckily for her, Nyssa had dove in with her. With Felicity it was different. With Felicity _everything_ was different. Reality came back to Sara's senses in the nick of time, and she pulled Felicity back upright, before turning the girl and sitting her down on the edge of the bed once more.

"You should take these," Sara said, handing the Felicity the aspirin, which the younger woman gratefully put in her mouth. Sara handed her the 7-Up afterward and Felicity took a sip and swallowed the pills back, before handing the glass back to Sara. "Now all that's left is to sleep it off."

The older blonde lifted up the covers of Felicity's bed and delicately helped Felicity to get under them. As she stared down at Felicity's head resting on the pillow, Sara wanted to say more. She wanted to tell Felicity that she was amazing and funny and not at all what Sara had expected of her the first time they met. She wanted to ask Felicity if she could kiss her. She wanted to tell Felicity that she loved her, that she was _in_ love with her, and that, if it not for Sara's dark past, she thought Felicity might have been the missing half of her. It would have been crazy and impulsive and unscripted, but it was what Sara _wanted_ desperately deep down in the very core of who she was. She had found something unexpected with Felicity: fate. Unfortunately, fate seemed to have brought Felicity to her seven years too late.

"Tell me what you're thinking," Felicity requested softly, lifting her fingers to Sara's forehead. "You always scowl and this little crinkle forms right between your eyes when something's upsetting you."

Sara's heart melted a little at how well Felicity knew her. She set her hand on the other side of Felicity's body and leaned her weight on it. "I'm worried about you," Sara answered, deciding that it was the most honest and safest answer.

"I'm okay now," Felicity assured her. "Thanks to you. You've been wonderful tonight. Of course, you're wonderful every night, it's just that tonight you went above and beyond and, wow, I think I'm sobering up because I can speak fluent rant again."

Sara chuckled under her breath and leaned down to kiss Felicity's cheek. "You're cute," Sara whispered warmly. Felicity yawned at that moment and Sara laughed a little more. "And tired," she added. "I should let you sleep."

Felicity stopped her just as she was about to get up. "I can still sleep if you're in here. You don't have to go," she said. "In fact, I'd like it if you stayed."

It was dangerous territory, and Sara knew that, but as much as Sara didn't want to take advantage of Felicity's vulnerability, she also wanted to make Felicity feel safe while she was vulnerable. It was a conflicting cycle; two sides of the same coin. So she decided that if she wanted to protect Felicity's vulnerability then she needed to do what would make Felicity feel comfortable, and if that meant sleeping next to Felicity for one night, then that was what she was going to do.

"Let me go put on my Rockets PJs and I'll be right back, okay?"

* * *

"**O**h my God, I feel like death warmed over," Felicity groaned the next morning as she awoke to the sensation of fingers stroking through her hair soothingly. "Why did you let me drink so much?"

Sara's soft, warm, rumbling laugh felt good to Felicity's over-sensitive ears, much better than the neighbors upstairs or the sounds of traffic on the nearby streets just outside her neighborhood. "You wanted to let loose, so I let you," Sara reasoned in a respectfully low voice. The fingers continued scratching Felicity's scalp even as she reached for her phone. "I've already called Oliver and told him that you're not to be bothered for the rest of the day, I have coffee – two creams, extra sugar – and Sin played delivery girl this morning and brought us some of those croissants from the bakery on Bay Street that you like so much."

Slowly, Felicity sat up and looked at Sara. "Words cannot describe how thankful I am to have you in my life, Sara Lance," she said with complete sincerity. Felicity leaned in and pressed her lips to Sara's cheek for a long, lingering moment before pulling away and looking into her eyes. "I can't imagine being without you now."

Sara felt that incessant desire pulling her toward Felicity again. "Where else would be?" she asked cheekily.

Felicity beamed.

.


End file.
